Buffy Summers: Code Name Slayer - Part 1 (Iron Man)
by Kitkat5979
Summary: After the Watcher's Council discover some interesting facts about Buffy's past Giles realises that Buffy is now in danger. Giles and Joyce send Buffy away from Sunnydale in hopes of protecting her. Neither knowing what kind of trouble she would get herself into in California.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey Everyone hope you enjoy my new story please continue to give me reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own BTVS or any characters from the Marvel universe.

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Buffy sat on the bus on the way back to Sunnydale after her summer in L.A dreading what was going to happen next, she had only talked to her mother a few times since she left Sunnydale, so she was rather nervous. As she walked up to her front door she started to panic internally but knocked on the door anyway. She waited a moment before her mother opened the door, the two threw their arms around each other. Buffy felt relieved she was finally home.  
A few hours later Buffy is unpacking her things; she looks around the room for a minute before grabbing her jacket and heading to her mother's room.  
"Mom?" Buffy says as she enters the room to see her mother reading, Joyce is startled by Buffy's appearance and almost falls out of her chair "Oh! Buffy."  
"Sorry."  
"No, no. Don't worry about it. I guess I just got used to all the quiet while you were gone. But it's no problem." Joyce stands from her chair, when she notices Buffy holding her jacket "You going out?"  
Buffy looks down "Oh. Um...well, if it's ok. I, um, I'd like to find Willow and Xander."  
"Will you be slaying?"  
"Only if they give me lip."  
"Uh, can I make you a sandwich or something before you go? You must be starving."  
"I was until that 4-course snack you served me after dinner."  
"Well, then, you know, why don't I drive you? I mean, they could be anywhere."  
"Mom...If you don't want me to go, just say so."  
"No, no. I just want to put this whole thing behind us, get back to normal. You go. Have a good time."  
Buffy smiles slightly at her mother "Ok." She gives her mom a small wave before leaving the house and going to find her friends.

Buffy is walking in one of the cemeteries when she hears yelling "He's getting away!" Yells one of the voices, Buffy immediately recognises the voice as Willow's, she runs towards the voice when a vampire runs towards her, it crashes into her causing the two to roll on the ground. Buffy flips her self back up; she throws the vampire 10 feet away from her and he ends up landing in front of Willow, Oz and Xander who are all on the floor. "What the hell?" Xander says confused. The vampire jumps back up and turns to Buffy and growls "Slayer."  
Xander, Oz and Willow heads' all shoot in her direction "Buffy!" They all yell surprised "Hey guys." Buffy says before flipping over the headstone and standing in front of the vampire. She punches the vampire in the face and swings her leg around knocking him off his feet "Stake?" She asks only to have Xander toss her one "thanks." Buffy says before driving the stake in the vampires heart.  
Buffy stands from her crouched position and turns to her friends "Hey guys." Buffy says with a nervous smile on her face. The three smile at her and all hug her "Guys need to breath." Buffy tells them with a strained voice.  
"So how was L.A Buffster? Kill anything?" Xander asks with a goofy smile on his face.  
Buffy giggles slightly "Actually yes, I killed a ton of Demons two days ago. Did you guys get my letters?"  
Willow smiles "Yeah, we did. Buffy I'm so sorry about what happened. We all get why you left, we're just glad you kept in contact."  
Buffy smiles at her friends once more, than helps them with the rest of the patrol.

Later that night the four ended up outside Giles's house "What if he's mad?" Buffy asks the three with a worried look. Xander sighs "Buffy it's not like you disappeared off the planet, you kept in contact with everyone and Giles understands after what happened that you needed time away." Xander moves Buffy to stand in front of the door, Buffy huffs then rings the bell. As the door opens there is a awkward silence as Giles stares stunned at Buffy, Xander at this point decided to crack a joke "Check it out. The watcher is back on the clock. And just when you were thinking career change, maybe becoming a looker or a seer."  
"Thank you, Xander." Giles says interrupting the joke, his gaze not once leaving Buffy. "Welcome home, Buffy." Buffy smiles and the four of them head inside the house and go to sit down on the couch.  
"I got in a few hours ago," Buffy tells them a little while later "but I wanted to go see my mom first."  
"Yes. Yes, of course." Giles shrugs "How did you find her?"  
"Well, I pretty much remembered the address."  
Giles smiles "I mean, uh...how are things between you?" Before Buffy can answer Giles excuses himself to make the tea, leaving the scoobies alone in the living room.  
"Hey, so you're not wanted for murder anymore." Oz informs the slayer.  
"Good. That was such a drag."  
Xander interjects "So Buff why didn't you go to Belgium?"  
Buffy smiles "Why would I go to Belgium?"  
"I think the relevant question is why wouldn't you? Belgium!" The group giggle as Giles comes back into the room "Here we are then." Giles says as he places the cookies and the tea on the table. "As for school, Buffy, uh, you know you'll have to talk to Principal Snyder before—"  
"On it." Buffy interrupts "Mom is making an appointment with his ugliness. I know she can break him."

After a few hours of conversation the four teenagers headed home leaving Giles alone. Right before he went to bed his phone began to ring "Hello?"  
"Hello, Rupert." Said Quentin Travers from the other end of the phone.  
"Travers. What can I do for you?"  
"It seems we may have an issue with Miss Summers."  
Giles started to worry "Why would you say that?"  
"Well the council has been doing some digging and it appears that the slayer is actually the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country."  
Giles was rather confused now "I'm afraid I don't understand, Buffy's father is a lawyer."  
"Her step-father is a lawyer yes. But her biological father is in fact Anthony Stark the owner of Stark industries, one of the most powerful weapons companies in the whole world. You can see how this could be a problem."  
Giles froze he knew that the council were very cautious when it came to slayer's who come from powerful families. They were harder to control. But none of the previous slayer had come from this kind of power. "What is going to happen?"  
"Well for now we will be keeping an eye on Miss Summers. Also another slayer will be sent to Sunnydale and her watcher will help keep an eye on her so that we can take the appropriate action if it becomes necessary. Good day Rupert."  
Giles hung up the phone. Giles knew that Buffy was in extreme danger, if she would not give the council access to Stark industries then they would declare her rouge and order her killed. Giles knew he had to think of a way to protect Buffy.

"Absolutely not." Principle Snyder said as he glared at Buffy and Joyce the next morning "Under no circumstances."  
Joyce shook her head "But you can't keep her out of school. You don't have the right."  
"I have not only the right, but also a nearly physical sensation of pleasure at the thought of keeping her out of school. I'd describe myself as tingly."  
"Buffy was cleared of all those charges."  
Snider just smirked "Yes, and while she may live up to the not-a-murderer requirement for enrolment, she is a troublemaker. Destructive to school property and the occasional student. And her grade point average is enough to...I'm sorry another tingle moment. You know her grade point average is actually quite interesting, you used to have a 4.0 GPA with top grades in all classes and a gift for mechanics. Now look at you."  
Joyce glares at the evil man "I don't see how you can be so cavalier about a young girl's entire future!"  
"I'm quite sure that a girl with the talents and abilities of Buffy will land on her feet. In fact, I noticed as I came in this morning that hot dog on a stick is hiring. You will look so cute in that hat."  
Buffy glares angrily at the man "Let's go, mom." Buffy says as she gets up from her seat and walks out of the room her mother following her.

The next morning Buffy and Joyce are in the kitchen talking "I've been on the phone with the superintendent of schools. At least he seems more reasonable than that nasty little horrid, bigoted rodent man."  
"Mom—" Buffy sighs.  
"Anyway I'm going in to speak with him this afternoon. As for private schools, Miss porter's accepts late admissions.I, uh, I wrote the information down for you." Buffy's eyes widen and she turns to face her mother "A girls' school? So now it's jackets, kilts, and no boys? Care to throw in a little foot-binding?"  
"Buffy, you made some bad choices. You just might have to live with some consequences."  
"I am already living with the consequences."  
Joyce sighed Buffy had told her what had happened with Angel, which now made Joyce feel horrible "Look nothing's settled yet... There may be one more option."  
Buffy turns her head in interest "What?"  
Joyce shakes her head "Let me try first, then I will tell you." Buffy nods then heads off to her room.

A little while later Joyce is sitting on her bed holding the phone contemplating what she is about to do. She doesn't want to but she know she has to, for Buffy. Buffy needs a fresh start away from this town and he is the only one who can help her. Joyce sighs then dials a number she hasn't dialled in years.

Malibu, California – Stark Industries

Pepper Potts is going through the paper work in Tony's office at Stark industries. She is almost finished when she tries to open one of the draws on Tony's desk only to find it locked "What the—" Pepper had never realised this draw was locked, Pepper sighs and starts to look for the key. A few minuets later she finds the spare key taped to the bottom of the desk. She opens the draw only to find not paper work, or blueprints but photos and drawings. She pulls out the contents of the draws. Pepper is stunned by what she is looking at, there are a ton of report cards for a girl named Buffy. Pepper sees a picture of Tony and a small blonde girl with pigtails who could not have been more than 7 when the photo at the time. The two are smiling while he carried the girl on his back. The next photo is of Tony and the same girl this time she looks about 5 and the two are sitting by Howard's old motorcycle. The girl sits on Tony's lap laughing as she holds a crowbar.  
After finding lots of photo's of Tony and the little girl, then finding newspaper articles about a fire at a high school in L.A, she finds a birth certificate. 'Buffy Anne Stark Summers' was the name printed at the top with Tony's name sighed at the bottom as the father "Oh, my, God." Pepper was shocked Tony had a daughter. She couldn't believe it. She quickly rummaged through the photos again and ended up finding one of Buffy and Tony's best friend James. It was then she found the drawing which the girl had most probably done when she was very little, she turned over the picture to see a label 'Me and my daddy' was written in crayon. Pepper sat their stunned, how could she have not known about this, she knew practically everything about Tony yet she had no idea he had a daughter, who he apparently adored and had kept on an eye on over the years yet never talked about. Pepper quickly grabbed some of the photos and the birth certificate before putting the rest back in the draw and heading off the confront Tony.

Tony Stark's mansion Malibu, California

Tony Stark is currently working on some blueprints for his next set of weapons when his phone start to ring "Jarvis could you answer that." Tony asks the A.I  
"Of course sir." Jarvis responds  
"Tony?" Comes the timid voice of the one and only Joyce Summers. The moment Tony heard the voice he dropped his coffee in shock. He had not from Joyce or even Buffy since they had moved to Sunnydale. "Joyce. What's going on?"  
Joyce sighed "Tony I need your help. It's about Buffy."  
Tony's head shot up he may not be the best man in the world or even the best father but he adored his daughter. He had always tried to protect her, hell he had even made sure that she would not have to grow up in the public eye. There were very few people who knew about Buffy; some of the members of the board at Stark industries new and had too adored the girl when they had met her and Rhodey of course knew and was actually her godfather. Not even Pepper knew. "What happened?"  
"Buffy got expelled from Sunnydale high."  
Tony laughed slightly expelled from another school, that troublemaker side was something she definitely got from him. "What do you need me to do?"  
Joyce sighs sadly "I want Buffy to get away from Sunnydale for a while, some things happened a few months ago and she ended up running away. Now that she's back I can see just how being in this town affects her. I can't get her into any schools here 'cause of her past and I can't leave because of my job... So... I need you to take her."  
Tony almost fell out of his chair. Yes, Buffy had stayed at the mansion from time to time over the years but to have her actually live here he didn't know if he could do that. "Joyce—"  
But before he could say anything Joyce interrupted him "No. Tony, she is your daughter and she needs you. I have never asked you for anything, but know I'm asking you, please. Do it for Buffy."  
Tony sighed for a moment he was very torn, he did not want to risk Buffy being exposed to the press at least until she was 18. But his daughter needed him "Ok, when should I expect her."  
Joyce who was now smiling "I will talk to Buffy and have her up their soon. Thank you Tony."  
After Tony hangs up he leans back in his chair stunned his daughter was coming here. To live with him. As much as he tried not to smile he couldn't "Jarvis get a room set up for Buffy."  
"Of course sir. I will have furniture ordered for Miss Stark Summers straight away."  
"Thank you Jarvis." Tony sighed then turned back to his blueprints, turning AC/DC back on to help him focus. It was only five minutes later when the music switched off. Tony looked up to see Pepper standing at the door, looking very pissed off. She walked over to his desk and slammed down several photos and Buffy's birth certificate on the desk "You have a daughter!?"  
Pepper glared at Tony causing him to look at her slightly terrified "Oh, shit..."


	2. Chapter 2

Sunnydale, California

Joyce was sitting at the kitchen table with Giles, Willow, Xander, Oz and Cordelia waiting for Buffy. She had called Buffy's friends so they could hear the news aswell. When Buffy entered the room Joyce told her to sit so they could talk. "Buffy, I have tried everything I could think of to get you back into school but I wasn't able to, I'm sorry."  
Buffy nodded sadly and looked down at her hands "So what now?"  
"I called your father." Buffy's head shot up shocked "Buffy, I think you need to get away from Sunnydale for a while and well your father is willing to help. I want you to go and stay with him at least for this year. Considering you had a 4.0 GPA before you were the slayer and were set to graduate early anyway. Who knows, with him around you will most probably finish your senior year early then you can come back." Buffy friends all turned in shock none of them had know that Buffy was that smart "You had a 4.0 GPA when you were in L.A?" Willow asks her best friend shocked, before Buffy could answer though Joyce spoke up "Buffy was top in her class in everything, was even gifted in mechanics helped her father rebuild an old car when she was 7."  
Xander's jaw dropped while Oz just grinned "Cool."  
Buffy who was still in shock turned to her mom "Mom, I can't just leave. What about the Hellmouth?"  
It was Giles who answered the question "Buffy, another slayer is on the way, so you don't have to worry about the Hellmouth. What you need to worry about is yourself. Buffy, the council found out who your real father is. A man that powerful, with access to that many weapons, the council will try to use you to get to them. And if you don't help them they will declare you rouge and have you killed."  
"What!" Everyone screamed except Joyce, who Giles had already informed and Buffy who was still too stunned to do anything. Giles ignored the teenagers' outburst and kept going "Buffy by being in Malibu around your father. The council won't be able to touch you. The only reason they think they can now, is because you live here and not around all that press and security."  
Cordelia at this point looked at Giles confused "But I thought Buffy's father was a lawyer. How much power could he actually have?"  
Joyce sighed "Ok what we are about to tell you all, never leaves this room is that understood?"  
The group all look at each other before nodding "Buffy do you want to tell them?" Joyce asks her daughter.  
Buffy looks at her friend then nods "My father is not Hank, he is my step-father. My real father is...Tony Stark."  
Everyone's jaws' drop of all things they had been expecting that was not it. "Tony Stark as in billionaire genius?" Xander asks  
"Yeah... that would be my dad."  
"Oh. My. God! Your rich like really rich. Like you could buy a private island. I bet your trust fund is huge!" Cordelia is literally jumping up and down in excitement, causing everyone to roll their eyes "I'm not rich, my dad is rich not me."  
Willow turns to Giles "Giles are you sure that Buffy is in that much danger?"  
"Unfortunately yes, the council has a black ops team trained to deal with rouge slayers. The sooner you go the better. They also can't find out your going, which means pack light and drive there don't take a plane. The council has eyes everywhere."  
Buffy looks at her friends with tears in her eyes and nods.  
After deciding that Buffy would leave the next day Xander and Willow decided to stay the night and help Buffy pack. The next morning Buffy puts her weapons chest and her suitcase into the car. After an emotional goodbye with her friends and Giles, Buffy and her mother jump in the car and head for Malibu.

Malibu, California

"So your daughter is moving in here, with you, because she got expelled from her school in Sunnydale?" Pepper asks Tony. After several hours yelling at him, Tony had started to tell her about Buffy and what she was like. "Yes."  
"And why did she get kicked out of her school in L.A?"  
Tony lets out a small laugh "Well, she kinda...burnt down her school gym."  
Peppers jaw dropped in shock "Oh, my she really is your daughter. When does she get here."  
"She should be here any minute her mom is driving her up."  
"Yes, what about you and Joyce, was it a one night stand, what?"  
"No, well, sort of...I don't know. We were friends, really close then we meet up one time and had a few drinks and well..."  
"Okay, so you guys are on good terms."  
"Yes."  
Pepper sighs then sees the grin on Tony's face "Your excited."  
Tony doesn't look at Pepper and tries to avoid her gaze, luckily Jarvis's voice draws the two's attention "Mr Stark, Miss Stark Summers is here."  
At that Tony literally ran upstairs to the front door where Buffy and Joyce now stood. "Hey." Buffy said awkwardly as Tony watched her and Joyce. Before he could say anything though Joyce turned to Buffy "Buffy I have got to go. I have to get home and deal with the gallery are you going to be alright?"  
Buffy sighed "Yeah, I'll be fine mom."  
Joyce smiles and gave her daughter a hug and told her she loved her before heading back to the car and driving off.  
Buffy turned to Tony who was watching her intently, she shifts awkwardly, they had not really spoken since she had become the slayer and she was different now. She had no idea what to do. Tony watched his daughter carefully then noticed that she only had one bag and a wooden chest with her which seemed to be padlocked. "Is that all you brought?"  
Buffy looks down and shrugs "It's all I need." Tony frowns slightly then picks up the bag while Buffy carries the chest and Tony takes her to her room. "I had Jarvis set you up in the second largest room in the house."  
Buffy looked confused for a moment "Jarvis? Isn't that the A.I you were designing a few years ago?"  
Tony nods "Yep finished him almost two years ago now. He pretty much runs the house."  
The two enter Buffy's room and her jaw drops "Holy—this room is bigger that my entire house in Sunnydale."  
"Yeah. You may have to go shopping to fill out the wardrobe by the way." Tony told her before putting down her suitcase and walking over to another door which opened to reveal as huge walk in wardrobe. Buffy could not think of anything to say except one word "Wow!"  
Tony laughs slightly "Come on. There is someone you need to meet."

Tony leads her down to garage as he does Buffy looks around at mansion she had forgot how big this place was. When they get down to the garage Buffy sees a red headed woman in a white pantsuit standing by the desk. Pepper turns to see Tony and a small blonde girl coming down the stairs "Hello, you must be Buffy." Buffy smiles nervously at the woman "It's lovely to meet you Buffy, I'm Pepper Potts."  
Before Buffy can say anything Pepper's phone starts to ring, causing Pepper to sigh "Tony I have to go. Obadiah needs some files about the Jeriko Missiles." Pepper leaves the room quickly leaving Buffy and Tony alone. There is a awkward silence between the two but then Buffy spots the 1967 Chevy Impala in the corner of the room "Is that what I think it is?"  
Tony follows her gaze to the car and smiles "Yep got it two years ago. Rebuilt it my self." Tony watches Buffy examines the car "So do you want some pizza or something?"  
Buffy shakes her head "Actually um, I think I just want to crash you know."  
Tony nods his head slightly disappointed "Sure. I'll have Happy come over tomorrow, he can take you shopping if you want."  
"Thanks. Goodnight Tony." Buffy gave him a small wave before heading off to her room. Tony sighed sadly, him and Buffy had not been close for a while and after L.A they had barely spoken. She had changed so much and he had no idea what to do.

S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters – Location Unknown

Director Nick Fury watched the footage in front of him. Buffy Summers, air to the Stark fortune was the slayer, he had know for a while, had been watching her for years. And from what he had seen she was the best slayer to ever had lived. She seemed to be able to pick up fighting techniques, gymnastics and weapons techniques faster than any previous slayer. She would be a valible asset to his team. Now that Ms. Summers was keeping her distants from the watcher's council, it would be easier for him to keep an eye on her. Fury knew that he couldn't send in agents to shadow her, the girl was too good for that, she had seen it last time, when he had Barton shadow her in L.A and she had not been so happy about it. He knew he would have to come up with something.  
At that moment Agent Phillip Coulson entered the room "Director. The files on Miss. Summers you asked to be buried. It's done. Once she is outed to the press they will not be able to gain access to any of her history."  
The director smiled "Good. Thank you agent Coulson." Fury watched the screen and leaned back in his chair trying to think of how to handle the slayer situation next.

Malibu, California

For the past few weeks Buffy and Tony had managed to avoid each other, things were still awkward for them. The only time that they really talked is when Buffy comes down to the garage and works on the old motorcycle Tony had ordered for her. One of the longest conversations they had was about Buffy's education, they had made a deal that Jarvis would home school her so she doesn't have to go to private school. By the progress she has made Tony expects that she will be done with her senior year within the next two months. It was now Sunday morning and Tony was heading back down to the garage when he heard some noise coming from the gym. He quietly opened the door to see Buffy balancing on a wooden log in a handstand. She slowly started to raise her right hand when he knocked over a lamp by the door causing Buffy to fall. "Sorry." Tony said as he entered the room.  
"It's ok. I've had worse." Buffy shrugged as she got up from the floor and stepped over to the wall where a set of throwing knifes lay.  
"What are you doing?" Tony asked, then froze in complete shock as Buffy threw the knifes with perfect accuracy at the opposite wall "Damn."  
Buffy laughs slightly "I am more traditional with weapons. Unlike you."  
Tony smiles "Be careful I don't want to have to clean blood off the floor." Buffy raises an eyebrow at him before he leaves the room.

2 Weeks later - Las Vegas

After the video about Tony Stark's history finishes the crowd clapped and Rhodey steps up to the podium "As liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. He is my friend and he is my great mentor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honour to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark." The crowd all begin to clap "Tony?" Rhodey calls after a few minutes when he does not appear. Rhodey looks over at Obadiah who shakes his head, before getting up and moving towards the stage. "Thank you, Colonel." Obadiah says as he shakes his hand, taking the award and holding it up "This is beautiful. Thank you. Thank you all very much. This is wonderful. Well, I'm not Tony Stark. But if I were Tony, I would tell you how honoured I feel and what a joy it is to receive this very prestigious award. Tony, you know...the best thing about Tony is also the worst thing. He's always working."

Meanwhile downstairs in the casino Tony is playing blackjack; he rolls the dice. "Work it! Come on!" He yells when the dice show he has won again. When one of the women next to him lean against him he smiles "We should just stay till the morning."  
"You are unbelievable." Rhodey tells him as he walks over to Tony and Happy.  
Tony sighs "Oh, no! Did they rope you into this?"  
"Nobody roped me into anything!"  
"I'm so sorry."  
"But they told me that if I presented you with an award, you'd be deeply honoured."  
"Of course I'd be deeply honoured. And it's you, that's great. So when do we do it?"  
"It's right here." Rhodey hands Tony the award "Here you go."  
"There it is. That was easy. I'm so sorry."  
"That's ok."  
"Wow! Would you look at that? That's something else. I don't have any of those flying around." Tony hands the award to the brunette woman next to him and turns back to the dealer "We're gonna let it ride!" he holds out the dice in his hand towards the woman "Give me a hand, will you? Give me a little something-something." The woman smiles and blows on the dice, Tony then looks at Rhodey "What about you."  
"I don't blow on a man's dice."  
"Come on, honey bear." Rhodey knocks the dice out of Tony's hands causing them to roll "There it is Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes rolls! And..." The smile on Tony's face fades when two ones appears "That's what happens." Rhodey tells him.  
Tony just shrugs "Worse things have happened. I think we're gonna be fine. Colour me up, will you?" He asks the dealer and then continues to play.

"I thought you were supposed to be on your best behaviour now that a certain small blonde is living with you." Rhodey says to Tony as they walk to the exit.  
Tony turns to him "Well that blonde is currently in Malibu with Pepper, while I am in Vegas. I promised to be on best behaviour when I'm around her. By the way she does want to see you."  
Rhodey smiles "I'll stop by soon." As the reach the exit Rhodey shakes Tony's hand "This is where I exit."  
"All right."  
"Tomorrow, don't be late."  
"Yeah, you can count on it."  
"I'm serious!"  
"I know, I know."  
When Tony walks by a man dressed as Caesar he passes him the award Rhodey gave him "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. There you go."  
Happy and Tony exit the casino and head towards the car. Happy opens the car door for Tony but before he can get inside a voice from behind them calls his name "Mr. Stark! Excuse me, Mr. Stark!" Tony stops "Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair magazine." She tells him "Can I ask you a couple of questions?  
Tony turns to Happy "She's cute." Happy informs him  
"She's alright? Ok."  
Tony turns to face the blonde woman "Hi."  
"Hi." She responds  
"Yeah. Okay, go."  
"It's okay?" Tony nods and steps towards her "You've been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?"  
"Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint."  
"And what do you say to your other nickname? 'The Merchant of Death'?"  
"That's not bad. Let me guess. Berkeley?"  
"Brown, actually."  
"Well, Ms. Brown, it's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals."  
"Rehearse that much?"  
"Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime."  
"I can see that."  
"I'd like to show you first-hand."  
"All I want is a serious answer."  
Tony shrugs and crosses his arms "Okay, here's serious. My old man had a philosophy, 'Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy'."  
"That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks."  
"My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero."  
"And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering."  
Tony takes off his sun glasses to look at the woman properly "Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs military funding, honey."  
The woman smiles "Wow. You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?"  
"I'd be prepared to lose a few with you."

The next morning Christine wakes up in Tony's bed in Malibu to the voice of Jarvis, "Good morning. It's 7:00 a.m. The weather in Malibu is 72 degrees with scattered clouds. The surf conditions are fair with waist-to-shoulder high lines. High tide will be at 10:52 a.m."  
Christine walks down the stairs and into the large living room "Tony? Hey, Tony?" She continues to walk around the room looking at the photos and the frames on the wall, she looks slightly confused when she sees a photo of Tony and a small blonde girl standing by a Motorcycle, while he carries the girl on his back. She stops in front of the electronic devices on the wall and turns the dial but jumps back when Jarvis speaks "You are not authorised to access this area."  
"Jesus"  
"That's Jarvis. He runs the house." Says Pepper Potts as she stands in the living room holding a garment bag, as she watches the blonde. "I've got your clothes here. They've been dry-cleaned and pressed, and there's a car waiting for you outside that will take you anywhere you'd like to go."  
Christine walks towards Pepper "You must be the famous Pepper Potts."  
Pepper smiles hoping to get the woman gone before Buffy wakes up "Indeed I am."  
"After all these years, Tony still has you picking up the dry-cleaning."  
"I do anything and everything that Mr. Stark requires, including, occasionally, taking out the trash. Will that be all?"  
At that moment Buffy comes down the stairs with her head phones on and her tracksuit, as she heads down to the garage to work on the bike. Buffy comes to a stop when she sees Pepper and Christine. She turns to Pepper "He's back." Pepper nods "Where?"  
Pepper smiles at the petite blonde "Where do you think?"  
Buffy rolls her eyes then turns to the blonde who is addressing her "Hello I don't believe we have met. I'm Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair magazine."  
Before Buffy can say anything Pepper turns to Buffy "Buffy why don't you head down to the garage, I'm sure Tony could use the company." Buffy nods and turns to the blonde giving her a small smile "It was nice to meet you Miss. Everhart."  
Christine stares at the small blonde confused as she leaves the room. Then remembers the photo she found. "Oh, my god. Does-It that-Tony has daughter?"  
"It's best you leave now." Pepper says before walking Christine to the door and sending her on her way.

Buffy heads down the stairs to the garage and opens the door seeing Tony working on one of the cars "Hey" Tony turns to see Buffy and gives her a small smile  
"Saw your bike engines coming along nicely."  
"Thanks. So how was Vegas?" Buffy asks raising an eyebrow as she moved to sit her the bike.  
Tony cleared his throat "I'm guessing you met um-...oh..."  
"Christine." Buffy offers.  
Tony clicks his fingers at her "Yes that's it. Sorry."  
Buffy shrugs "It's cool. It's your home. It's not like I expected you to stop living your lifestyle just cause I'm here. So... do you need any help." Tony smiles at his daughter and nods "Sure." he says then asks her to pass him the head bolts . She hands him the parts as she sits next to him and starts on the engine.

As they work Tony looks at the screen in front of them "Give me an exploded view." He tells Jarvis  
"The compression in cylinder three appears to be low." Jarvis tell his.  
"Log that." Tony tells Jarvis before handing Buffy the screwdriver. They continue to work as Pepper enters the room turning down the music "I'm gonna try again, right now"  
"Please don't turn down my music." Tony says not looking away from the engine.  
"I'll keep you posted." Pepper says into the phone before hanging up. She stops behind Buffy and Tony and smiles at the sight before focusing on Tony "You are supposed to be halfway around the world right now."  
"How'd she take it?"  
"Like a champ. Also she knows about Buffy."  
Tony sighs "Why are you trying to hustle me out of here? I am spending quality time with Buffy here, which is what you wanted."  
Pepper sighs while Buffy laughs slightly "As lovely as that is, your flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half ago."  
"That's funny, I though with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there."  
"Spoiled douche" Buffy coughs under her breath causing Pepper to chuckle while Tony's eyes narrow at the blonde  
"You know I can still send you to private school right."  
Buffy swallows the lump in her throat which appeared at that comment and went back to focusing on the engine but then Jarvis addressed her "Ms. Stark it is time for your lessons." Buffy sighed and said goodbye to Tony and Pepper before heading upstairs "Karma!" Tony yelled at she left the room.  
Pepper tried to draw Tony's focus "Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out of the door."  
Tony stands and turns towards Pepper "Doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?"  
"Larry called. He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. So you want it? Yes or no."  
"Is it a good representation of his spring period?"  
"No. The Springs was actually the neighbourhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked, not 'spring' like the season."  
"So?"  
"I think it's a fair example. I think it's incredibly overpriced."  
"I need it. Buy it. Store it. Also have a private gym built for Buffy with all of that medieval weaponry crap. She's good with that stuff."  
Pepper smiles and gives him an odd look before continuing "Okay. The MIT commencement speech..."  
"Is in June. Please, don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way, down..."  
"They're haranguing me, so I'm gonna say yes."  
"Deflect it and absorb it. Don't transmit it back to me."  
"I need you to sign this before you get on the plane."  
"What are you trying to get rid of me for? What, you got plans?"  
Pepper holds out the paper and the pen towards Tony "As a matter of fact, I do."  
"I don't like it when you have plans."  
"I'm allowed to have plans on my birthday."  
"It's your birthday?"  
"Yes."  
"I knew that. Already?" He asks giving her a skeptical look.  
"Yeah. Isn't that strange? It's the same day as last year." As Tony signs the papers he smiles "Get yourself something nice from me."  
"I already did."  
"And?"  
"It was very nice."  
"Yeah." Tony says grinning  
"Very tasteful. Thank you, Mr. Stark."  
"You're welcome, Miss. Potts."  
Tony hands Pepper the pen and takes a drink of his expresso before starting to get ready to go.

Sunnydale, California

Meanwhile in Sunnydale Giles, Xander and Willow are chasing Oz, who is now in werewolf form. "He went this way!" Xander yells, the three of them run into the clearing only for a four person to run into them, knocking them all down. Giles turns and gasps in shock "Bloody hell." Xander and Willow look up to see Angel. He has blood on his mouth and looked feral. He moves towards the three but then runs off when he hears a wolf howl. The three look at each other stunned, Angel was alive. They all quickly got up and went after Oz and decided they would talk about what to do next about Angel, after one crisis was done.

Tony Stark's Mansion – Buffy's room.

Buffy is in the corner of the room hitting a punching bag that Tony helped her put up there earlier that week. She had had a short nap after her lesson and had the dream again. Angel and her were on the beach and then he told her that she had killed him. Buffy shook her head and gave the bag one more punch breaking it. After unwrapping her hands she decided to go down to the beach and relax for a while. She hoped she could get some peace from her guilt.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: LOL I am so sorry about the mix up I completely messed up and ended up posting the same chapter twice. So anyway I promise this is the actual chapter.

* * *

Malibu Airport

* * *

Tony and Happy race to the airport, once they pull up Tony gets out the car and turns to Happy who is getting out of the other car "You're good. I thought I lost you back there."  
As Happy reaches into the boot of the car to get Tony's bags he looks at his boss "You did, sir. I had to cut across Mulholland."  
"I got you. I got you."  
The two walk towards the plane where Rhodey is standing at the top of the stairs clearly not happy "What's wrong with you?"  
Tony looks up at him confused "What?"  
"Three hours." Rhodey explains.  
Tony just shrugs "I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair. Plus I was spending time with Buffy."  
"For three hours. For three hours you got me standing here."  
"Waiting on you now. Let's go. Come on." Tony says as he enters the plane "Wheels up! Rock and Roll!"

After the plane takes off Tony turns to see Rhodey reading "What you reading, platypus?"  
"Nothing."  
"Come on, sour patch. Don't be mad."  
Rhodey sighs "I told you, I'm not mad. I'm indifferent, okay?"  
"I said I was sorry."  
"You don't need to apologise to me."  
"I'm your man." Tony turns to the waitress "Hi. I told him I was sorry, but he..."  
"I'm just indifferent right now."  
"Hot towel?" The waitress asks, Tony smiles and takes it.  
Rhodey stares in disbelief "You don't repect yourself, so I know you don't respect me."  
"I respect you." Tony interjects.  
"Okay you respect me. But not yourself. How is Buffy supposed to respect you if you don't respect yourself, Tony. The girl need her father. Not a man who shows up at odd  
hours with a different woman every night."  
" . Since when is this about Buffy? Look Buffy knows who I am. And if you think about it, I'm awesome. Any teen would kill to have a dad like me."  
"Tony the girl is troubled, she needs something structured in her life. Here look at this." Rhodey throws the paper he was reading to Tony.  
Tony rolls his eyes and picks it up and read the title from five months ago "Local girl assults cop after being caught on crime scene."  
"She was accused of murder Tony and put a cop in the hospital. She has a violent history, you remember what happened at her last school. That reminds me, why haven't you guys spoken in so long."  
Tony puts the paper down "Well, I've been working and well Buffy's been different since L.A, more distant and then we just stopped talking, she doesn't even call me dad anymore, she shut me out. I don't know why, she became distant but I will find out when we get back. Anyway Anymore copies of this."  
Rhodey shakes his head "It's been buried. But something caused this, you need to find out what."  
Tony pouts "Can't you do it, you are the Godfather after all." He says in a child's voice.  
Rhodey glares "My god. You just expect me to clean up everything for you. I'm just your babysitter. So, when you need your diaper changed..." He takes the napkin off the waitress "Thank you." Then turns back to Tony "Let me know and I'll get you a bottle, okay?"  
"Hey! Heat up the sake, will you?" Tony asks the waitress and turns to Rhodey "Thanks for reminding me."  
"No, I'm not talking...we're not drinking. We're working right now."  
Tony continues to block out Rhodey "You can't have sashimi without sake."  
Rhodey sighs "You are constitutionally incapable of being responsible. No wonder Joyce has custody."  
Tony leans forward "It would be irresponsible not to drink. I'm just talking about a nightcap."  
"Hot sake?" The waitress asks as she smiles at Tony.  
"Yes, two, please."  
Rhodey shakes his head "No. I'm not drinking. I don't want any."

Half an hour later the Rhodey is very drunk. "That's what I'm talking about." Rhodey says as he and Tony sit on the couch watching the waitresses dance "When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform, you know what I recognize? I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back!"  
Tony turns to his friends "Hey, you know what? I'm not like you, I'm not cut out..."  
"No, no." Rhodey interrupts "You don't have to be like me! But you're more than what you are."  
Tony looks at the women "Can you excuse me if I'm a bit distracted here?" He says to Rhodey who yells "No! You can't be distracted right now! Listen to me!"

Malibu, California

* * *

Buffy is sitting in the garage working on her bike when Pepper walks into the room "Buffy shouldn't you be having your lesson with Jarvis."  
Buffy shrugs not taking her headphones as Jarvis answers for her "Miss Potts, Ms Summers Stark finished her lessons for today half an hour ago. Since then she has started working on the engine of the bike."  
Pepper sighs, the girl was just like her father "Has she eaten yet?"  
"No." Jarvis responds.  
Pepper walks over to Buffy removing the headphones from the girl and stands over her "Come on we're going out for dinner. Then tomorrow I'm taking you shopping."  
"But—"  
Buffy tries to argue but Pepper cuts her off. "No. Buffy you have not left the house since you got here plus I have seen your room it's completely bare. After we eat I'm going to help you pick some things out which will make you feel more at home."  
Pepper smiles as the small blonde before heading for the door "You have ten minutes before we leave so I suggest you go get ready." Buffy sighs then looks down at her clothes which were covered in grease "Crap." She exclaimed before heading upstairs to the shower.

Sunnydale, California

* * *

Giles enters the Summer's household to talk with Joyce about what the council has planned "Ms. Summers?" He calls as enters the house. Joyce appears from the kitchen "Mr. Giles. How can I help you?"  
Giles walks over to Joyce "Well, I thought of some more ideas of how to make sure the council can't get to Buffy, but I may need your help."  
Joyce nods "Of course I wi—"  
Before Joyce can finish her statement her eyes roll into the back of her head and she collapses, Giles catches her shocked at what had just happened. He quickly lifts Joyce and takes her to his car and drives to the hospital.  
Later Giles listened as Joyce explained about the brain tumor "I don't want Buffy to know. Not yet. Let me have some time to deal with it all then I will tell her, she has been through so much and she is only just starting to put her life back together." Giles nods promising to protect the secret for now.

Bagram Air Base, Afgnanistan

* * *

Tony walks out of the plane and heads over to the group of military men "General." He addresses shaking the hand of the older man. The general smiles "Welcome, Mr. Stark. We look forward to your weapons presentation."  
"Thanks."  
A short time later Tony is standing in front of the men as he begins the presentation "Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line. It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology. They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves." Tony the missiles that are being aimed at the mountains behind him, a second later one of the missiles flies in the direction of the mountains "For your consideration, the Jericho." Tony raises his arms as a loud explosion goes off behind him and a huge gust of wind comes at the group knocking everyone's hats off.

After the demonstration Tony opens one of the Stark Industry containers to reveal a personal mini bar "I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!" Tony says as he grabs a drink and grabs his phone to answer the video call from Obadiah "Tony."  
"Obie, what are you doing up?" Tony asks.  
"I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?"  
"It went great. Looks like it's gonna be an early Christmas."  
"Hey! Way to go, my boy! I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"  
Tony nods "Why aren't you wearing those pyjamas I got you?"  
Obadiah ignores the question "Good night, Tony."  
Tony hangs up the phone and climbs into the back seat of one of the military vans "Hey, Tony." Rhodey says as he walks up to the van.  
Tony sticks his head out the window "I'm sorry, this is the "fun-vee." The "hum-drum-vee" is back there."  
Rhodey sighs "Nice job."  
Tony nods at his friend "See you back at base."


	4. Chapter 4

Tony wakes up with a gasp as he tries to remember what happened, he remembered the explosion then the men in the van getting shot at. Then all he had was flashes to a group of men standing over him, as they pulled out scraps of metal from his chest. Tony gasped again in pain then pulled the oxygen tube from his nose. He turns his head to see a cup of water and tries to reach for it but knocks it too the ground. It's only then he notices the man in the corner, looking at himself in the mirror. Tony reaches for the bottle of water on the table but can't move "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man tells Tony.  
Tony turns on the bed to try and see what is keeping him from moving, when he does he sees wires connected to a large battery. Tony pulls on the wires and follows them only to groan in pain when he realises the wires are connected to the metal object inside his chest.

A little while later, Tony is sat on the bed while the man is sat by the fire making the food. "What the hell did you do to me?"  
The man looks over at Tony "What I did?" He chuckles slightly "What I did is to save your life. I removed all the shrapnel I could, but there's a lot left, and it's headed into your atrial septum. Here, want to see?" the man stands, picking up a small jar full of shrapnel "I have a souvenir. Take a look." He tosses the jar at Tony who lifts it up to inspect the contents while the man continues "I've seen many wounds like that in my village. We call them the walking dead because it takes about a week for the barbs to reach the vital organs."  
Tony frowns at the man "What is this?" He asks gesturing to the large circular piece of metal in the middle of his chest.  
"That is an electromagnet, hooked up to a car battery, and it's keeping the shrapnel from entering your heart." Tony sighs then zips up his jumper and looks around the room, spotting the cameras in the corners of the room. The man notices Tony looking at the camera and smiles "That's right. Smile. We met once, you know at a technical conference in Bern."  
"I don't remember."  
"No, you wouldn't. If I had been that drunk, I wouldn't have been able to stand, much less give a lecture on integrated circuits."  
Tony ignores the comment "Where are we?" Before the man can answer a small hole in the door opens and one of the guards starts to yell. "Come on, stand up. Stand up!" The man tells Tony as he rushes over to him before the guards come in. Tony stands as the man pulls him up "Just do as I do. Come on, put your hands up." Tony copies the man, raising his hands above his head, as three guards walk in carrying large guns which are aimed at the two of them. Tony looks at the guns carefully "Those are my guns. How did they get my guns?"  
The man leans closer to Tony and speaks with an urgent turn "Do you understand me? Do as I do."  
One of the guards starts to speak to Tony in Arabic. "He says, "Welcome, Tony Stark, the most famous mass murderer in the history of America." He is honoured." The man next to Tony translates the guards words for the billionaire. The guard continues to speak "He wants you to build the missile. The Jericho missile that you demonstrated." The guard hands the man a photo "This one." He says showing the photo to Tony. Tony looks at the photo then back at the leader and glares at him "I refuse."

A second later Tony is having his head forced underwater by one of the guards. They pull his head back up for a second before shoving him back under the water. As Tony struggles he swears he can hear Buffy and Peppers' voices calling for him. When the men pull him back up they make him stand and put a bag over his head and drag him somewhere. When the bag is removed Tony is blinded by the light for a moment, before he looks around at the site where the men had brought him. He walks around and sees hundred of weapons with Stark Industries written on the boxes.  
Tony stops in front of the guard and the man "He wants to know what you think." The translator tells him.  
Tony looks at the guard "I think you go a lot of my weapons."  
The guard circles Tony as he speaks, when he finished Tony looks at the translator who explains "He says they have everything you need to build the Jericho missile. He wants you to make a list of materials." The translator listens to the guard for a moment before turning back to Tony "He says for you to start working immediately, and when you're done, he will set you free."  
The leader guard at Tony and holds his hand out, Tony takes the man's hand and shakes it "No, he won't" Tony says to the translator as he smiles at the leader.  
"No, he won't." The Translator agrees.

* * *

 **Malibu, California**

Buffy is in the gym with Happy training, with Happy dressed in lots of protective gear. It was still necessary, even though Buffy was holding back majority of her strength. Ever since Tony went missing Buffy started to train a lot more. It helped her get her mind off the thoughts that seemed to keep popping into her head. Buffy sent a kick to Happy's chest knocking him to the ground. Happy groans in pain as Buffy helps him stand "Sorry." Buffy says as she takes off her gloves and climbs out of the ring.  
Buffy grabs her bottle of water and turns to Happy as he climbs out of the ring completely out of breath. Happy watched the small blonde, every time he helped her train he was always shocked by the strength and ability she had. "How are you doing?" Happy asked the blonde, Buffy just shrugged.  
Happy gave he a pointed look causing Buffy to sigh "I'm worried. What if they don't find him. Or what if—" Buffy looks up at Happy sadly "I can't lose anyone else." Happy walked over to the girl and hugged her "Listen here Pepper is dealing with the company while Rhodey searches, why don't you go stay with your mum for a few days. Maybe see your friends."  
Buffy smiles "That might be a good idea. Thanks Happy." Buffy ran upstairs to go pack a bag.

* * *

 **A cave somewhere in Afghanistan**

Tony sits staring at the fire as the translator comes to sit by him "I'm sure they're looking for you, Stark. But they will never find you in these mountains. Look, what you just saw, that is your legacy, Stark. Your life's work, in the hands of those murderers. Is that how you want to go out? Is this the last act of defiance of the great Tony Stark? Or are you going to do something about it?"  
Tony doesn't look at him "Why should I do anything? They're going to kill me, you, either way. And if they don't, I'll probably be dead in a week."  
"Well, then, this is a very important week for you, isn't it?"  
Tony thinks of Buffy. Of all the damage that his life's work will cause her. Then he thinks about the kids he saw, some of them were around her age, maybe even younger. Tony knew he had to do something, and he only had a week to figure out what.

"If this is going to be my work station, I want it well-lit." Tony says as the guards bring in the equipment the next day "I want these up. I need welding gear. I don't care if it's acetylene or propane. I need a soldering station. I need helmets. I'm gonna need goggles. I would like a smelting cup. I need two sets of precision tools." The men continue to bring in the equipment while Tony instructs them.

* * *

 **Sunnydale, California**

Buffy drove down the road on her bike, she had finished it right after she got the news that Tony had disappeared and since then she had either worked out or worked on Howard's old car that her and Tony had started working on when she moved in.  
Buffy drives around town till she sees Xander, Cordelia, Oz and Willow walking out of the school. Buffy drives right in front of them and stops the bike.  
Xander and Oz stare at the motorcycle in front of them and smile "Cool." They both say at the same time. At that moment the group is shocked when the person on the bike climbs off and takes off their helmet. The driver is Buffy.  
Buffy shakes her hair and turns to her friends "Hey guys."  
Xander and Willow run over to Buffy and wrap their arms around her "Buffster, man we missed you." Xander tells her as him and Willow finally released the blonde slayer.  
Willow looks over at Buffy and smiles "Glad to see you Buffy but shouldn't you be in Malibu away from Sunnydale and the council. You just being here is dangerous."  
Buffy sighs "I'm only here for a few days, I wanted to see my mom I haven't really spoken to her in a while, plus with my father missing it's slightly weird being in the beach house."  
The four look at her sadly "We heard, I'm sorry Buff." Xander says rubbing a hand on her back. Buffy gives her friends a smile before the four of them decided to go grab some lunch.

Later that night after Buffy had diner with her mother, she went out on a Patrol as the new slayer was apparently out of town for a while. She was wandering through the graveyard and somehow she had ended up at Angel's mansion, she stepped inside and looked around the room. Buffy walked around the house when she realises something. The bookshelf should be covered in dust but they were spotless, Buffy stepped closer "What the hell?"  
"Buffy." A voice says from behind her.  
Buffy spins around only to see Angel she gasped "Wha—how...I killed you." Buffy stuttered out the words.  
Angel tries to step towards her but Buffy backs away "No, explain now!"  
Angel sighs "They didn't tell you."  
Buffy realises, who he means and an angry look crosses her face. "They knew?"  
Angel nods, Buffy clenches her fist then heads for the door Angel goes after her "Buffy." Buffy turns only to have Angel standing right in front of her.  
The two of them look into each others eyes a few moments pass and the two start to lean in but Buffy's phone rings. "I –I gotta go." Buffy says before running away.

Buffy ends up at the school library not caring about the fact that she's not allowed on school property. She barges into the library where the gang are sat researching, none of them notice her so Buffy takes her knife from her pocket and throws it at wall right beside Giles. The gang all gasp and turn to see a very pissed off Buffy standing at the doorway. "Angel's back and you didn't tell me!" Buffy yells looking at her friends in disbelief. Willow stands trying to explain "Buffy—"  
"How could you do this to me?" Buffy says tears in her eyes "You knew, you knew what it did to me killing him. The guilt and the pain and you let me stay like that."  
All of them froze when Giles turned to her "Buffy you have to understand. When it comes to Angel, you don't think straight. What would you have done if it wasn't Angel that came back would you have been able to do what was necessary."  
Buffy looks up at Giles "You should have told me. What else have you all been keeping from me? How am I supposed to trust you? Any of you!"  
Buffy turns and leaves the room ignoring the calls of her friends and heads back to the house.

A few days later Buffy went to see Angel again, against her better judgement, when she walked into the house she found him doing tai chi. The next thing she knew she was doing Tai Chi with him as she raised her arms she felt Angel place his hands on top of her and as the two lower their arms Buffy looks up to Angel who is now standing directly behind her. Right before they kiss Buffy backs away "I gotta go. I told my mum I would help her out at the gallery so I'm meeting her at the house before."  
Angel nods then looks at Buffy "What are we doing?"  
Buffy turns to him "Training. And almost kissing. Again. Sorry. It's just...old habit. Bad...bad habit...to be broken."  
Angel nods as he puts on his shirt "It's hard."  
Buffy shakes her head "It's not hard. Cold turkey. That's the key to quitting. Anyway I'm heading back to Malibu the day after tomorrow so..."  
The two look at each other for a moment, Buffy sighs "Do you think they make a patch for this."  
The two stop when they realise they are moving closer together "You should go." Angel says.  
Buffy nods "Yes, I have to go, mom, gallery, stuff." Buffy turns away and walks out of the mansion and heads home.

When Buffy opens the door at home she places her jacket on the side table "Mum. Hey you ready?"  
Buffy walks up to the staircase and calls for her mother again but there was no answer, she then turned to see her mother lying down on the couch. Buffy smiles and walks towards her "Hey, mum what are you doing, I thought you wanted to be at the gallery by 2."  
When Joyce doesn't respond Buffy walks closer "Mum. Mum. Mummy."


	5. Chapter 5

**Malibu, California**

* * *

Pepper is just leaving a meeting when her phone rings "Hello?" Pepper says as she answers the phone.  
"Yes, hello this is Mr. Giles."  
Pepper smiles "Oh yes Buffy has spoken of you, she thinks very highly of you."  
"Miss. Potts" Giles sighs "Something has happened. Joyce passed away."  
Pepper dropped the paperwork in her hand "What? How?"  
"Joyce had been suffering from a brain tumour for the last few months, she did have surgery which she thought made everything better. Joyce never told Buffy not wanting to worry her. But Joyce had an anyrusium this afternoon. Buffy was the one that found her."  
Pepper gasped in shock "I'll be there as soon as I can." Pepper quickly hangs up the phone and runs down to Obadiah's office.

"Ms. Potts what is it?" Obadiah asks as the red head enters the room.  
"I need to go get Buffy. Joyce passed this afternoon."  
Obadiah nods "Of course. I will call you if there is any news on Tony."  
Pepper nods before quickly leaving the office.

* * *

 **Sunnydale, California**

Buffy walks into the room when Giles hangs up the phone and clears her throat. Giles spins around and his eyes widen as he realises that Buffy heard everything "Buffy—"  
Buffy raises her hand silencing him "You knew?" Buffy asks her voice breaking "You knew that she was sick? That she might die and you didn't tell me. First Angel and now my mother."  
"Buffy, Joyce asked me not to tell you."  
Buffy ignores him "I didn't get to say goodbye. If I had known she was sick maybe I would have had that chance. But now she's gone. My mother is gone. And my father is either dead or being tortured by god know who."  
Buffy takes a deep breath and looks up at Giles "After the funeral I'm going back to Malibu with Pepper and this time...I'm not coming back. I'm done."  
Buffy turns away leaving the room ignoring Giles calls.

* * *

After the funeral, Pepper who had arrived a few hours earlier was waiting by the car with Happy so they could take Buffy home. Pepper watched as Buffy's friends came over to the blonde but Buffy did not acknowledge their presence. She did however acknowledge the tall dark haired man walking towards her. Buffy walked past her friends and over to the man.

Buffy's friends walked over to Pepper who focused on Buffy and the man "Who is that?" She asked the red haired girl.  
Willow looked at Pepper "That would be Angel. Him and Buffy used to—"  
Pepper nods understanding what she meant. She looked back over at the couple and could tell that Angel was older than Buffy which made Pepper worry.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner." Angel says to Buffy "I came as soon as I could."  
Buffy nods "What am I supposed to do?"  
Angel places a hand on Buffy's check "You take it day by day. I know you may not feel like it know but you are strong."  
The stand there together for a moment and Angel wraps his hand around her entangling their fingers together.  
"So what are you gonna do?" Buffy asks Angel as she leans into him.  
Angle places his chin on the top of her head "I'll help out around here and once I make sure the council won't get to you. Who knows, maybe I'll come to Malibu. I'll stay as long as you want me."  
Buffy turns to face Angel then tilts her head up and kisses him, he kisses her back and they stay like that for a few minutes before Buffy pulls away her breathing heavy. She looks into Angel's eyes "I should go." She looks at Angel once more and looks at their enjoined hands and sees the rings. Buffy smiles slightly as does Angel. A moment later Buffy pulls away and heads over to the car.

Buffy walks past her friends and climbs straight in the car. Pepper looks at Buffy's friends once more before saying goodbye and getting in the car. As Happy drives away from the graveyard Pepper looks over at Buffy "Buffy are you ok?" Buffy looks over at Pepper and shakes her head before she begins to sob. Pepper wraps her arms around the girl and hold her as she cries.

 **A cave somewhere in** **Afghanistan:**

As Tony slowly opens up one of the missiles he speaks to the translator "How many languages do you speak?"  
"A lot." He responds "But apparently, not enough for this place. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian."  
Tony pulls out the inside of the missile and places it carefully on the table before looking at the translator "Who are these people?"  
"They are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings." Tony nods then goes over a a large missile grabbing the drill and crouches next to it. As he works the translator crouches next to him "You know, we might be more productive if you include me in the planning process."  
Tony just nods then opens up the missile and pulls out the power source before heading back to the table and sitting down "Okay, we don't need this." Tony pulls out a small cube from the large power source and throws the power source over his shoulder. "What is it?"  
Tony lifts the object to show him "That's palladium, 0.15 grammes. We need at least 1.6, so why don't you go break down the other 11?"

Later Tony is sat at the table mixing an orange powder with his hands. He places a large clump of it into a small bowl before grabbing a circular piece of metal and placing it in the middle.

"Careful." Tony says as the translator lifts the now burning piece of metal from the fire "Careful, we only get one shot at this."  
"Relax. I have steady hands. Why do you thing you're still alive?"  
Once they get to the table the translator slowly pores the boiling liquid from inside the metal and places it in the object Tony was working on earlier. "What do I call you?" Tony asks.  
"My name is Yinsen."  
"Yinsen. Nice to meet you."  
Yinsen smiles "Nice to meet you, too."

A few days later after hours of endless work Tony's miniaturised arc reactor is finally finished and is now glowing with a bright blue light. Yinsen stands next to Tony and looks at the circular object "That doesn't look like a Jericho missile."  
"That's because it's a miniaturised arc reactor." Tony tells him "I got a big one powering my factory at home. It should keep the shrapnel out of my heart."  
"But what could it generate?"  
"If my math is right, and it alway is, three gigajoules per second."  
"That could run you heart for 50 lifetimes."  
"Yeah. Or something big for 15 minutes."  
Tony walks over to other desk and grabs a few pieces of paper which he had been using as blueprints and places them on the table "This is our ticket out of here."  
"What is it?"  
"Flatten them and look." Tony flattens the papers under the light revealing the drawing of a suit. "Oh, wow. Impressive."

* * *

 **Malibu, California:**

Pepper entered Tony's house to look for Buffy. She walked to Buffy's room only to find it empty, even the garage was empty. "Buffy?" She called she continued to search around the house still unable to find the teenager. Finally Pepper made her way down to the private beach. She walked down the stairs where she say Buffy on the beach doing a handstand, the girl seemed at peace, but a few moments later she lowered herself and turns around to face Pepper. "Hey" the girl said sadly. Pepper watched Buffy intently, ever since the funeral Buffy never left the house. She barely ever left her room. Pepper gave the girl a small smile "I have a surprise for you. Come with me." Buffy looked at Pepper skeptically before following the red head up the stairs.  
Pepper and Buffy walked to the back of the house, where Pepper used her key to open the large door in front of them. Once the door opened Buffy could see a staircase leading downwards. Pepper lead Buffy down the stairs to another door Pepper opened the door and let Buffy step inside. The moment she did she entered a gym with all types of different equipment and in one of the corners there was even shelves filled with medieval weaponry. "What—how—when? This is amazing?"  
Pepper smiles at her "Tony asked me to have it built right before he left. He said that you like medieval weaponry and asked if we could have some built in here. I may not understand why he is willing to give you access to weaponry, but it's what he wanted."  
"It's perfect." Buffy hugged Pepper "Thank you. Not just for this but for everything."

 **A cave somewhere in A** **fghanistan:**

Yinsen and Tony are sitting at the table playing checkers. Tony rolls and Yinsen looks at him impressed "Good. Good roll. Good roll."  
Tony picks up his next piece as he speaks "You still haven't told me where you're from."  
"I'm from a small town called Gulmira. It's actually a nice place." Yinsen tells Tony.  
"Got a family?" Tony asks curious.  
"Yes, and I will see them when I leave here. And you, Stark?"  
Tony hesitates for a few seconds "A daughter. I have a daughter."  
"Really?"  
"Yep."  
"What is she like?"  
Tony smiles slightly "She's amazing. Smart, sarcastic and snarky when she wants to be. Yet acts completely selfless. And she's very good with throwing knifes."  
"That's an rather odd talent." Yinsen chuckles.  
"Yeah. Still don't know where she picked it up. But she's also rather distant, I don't get to see her much, she normally lives with her mom. So normally I'm on my own."  
"So you're a man who has everything and the one thing he wants, his daughter, he can't have."


	6. Chapter 6

Tony and Yinsen continue to work on the suit piece by piece. Until one night Tony is using the blowtorch when the guards come in. Clearly not happy. The man who Tony normally deals with steps to the side to reveal a tall bald man. This man was the leader. He walks towards Tony and Yinsen who both hold their hands on their heads. "Relax." The man says, Tony looks at him confused before slowly lowering his hands as the man walks closer to him. The man touches the arc reactor in Tony's chest, which glows a bright blue. "The bow and arrow once was the pinnacle of weapons technology. It allowed the great Genghis Khan to rule from the Pacific to the Ukraine. An empire twice the size of Alexander the Great and four times the size of the Roman Empire." The man picks up Tony's blueprints "But today, whoever hold the latest Stark weapons rules these lands. And soon, it will be my turn."  
The man addresses Yinsen in Arabic while still watching Tony

 _"_ _Why have you failed me?"  
_ _"_ _We're working."_ Yinsen replies in Arabic _"Diligently."  
_ The man turns to Yinsen _"I let you live. This is how you repay me?"  
_ _"_ _It's very complex._ _He's trying very hard."  
_ _"_ _On his knees."_ The man says to one of the guards, who forces Yinsen onto his knees.  
 _"_ _You think I'm a fool?"_ The man asks still speaking in another language so Tony cannot understand _"I'll get the truth."  
_ _"_ _We're both working."  
_ The man lifts a buring piece of coal from the fire _"Open your mouth."  
_ Tony looks at Yinsen worried "What does he want?"  
 _"_ _You think I'm a fool?"_ The man said to Yinsen still speaking in a language Tony couldn't understand.  
The guards hold Yinsen's head down while the leader walks closer with the burning coal "What's going on?" Tony asked.  
The man ignored Tony again, focusing on Yinsen _"Tell me the truth."  
_ _"_ _He's building a Jericho."_

The two continue to yell at each other when Tony steps forward "What do you want? A delivery date?" As he gets closer to the leader all the guards point their guns at Tony. Tony turns his attention back to the leader "I need him. Good assistant."  
After a moment the man drops the coal by Yinsen's face but it did not touch him "You have till tomorrow to assemble my missile." He said to Tony before walking out of the room.

* * *

 **Malibu, California – Stark Industries:**

Pepper walked into Tony's office and as she did she started to feel overwhelmed. She was so worried about him, but she had to stay stong. She quickly went over to his desk to grab some paperwork when she saw a copy of Vanity Fair on the desk. One of the other assistants must have put in here, Pepper thought. She picked up the magazine only to gasp when she saw the cover, 'Buffy Stark Summers – Daughter of Tony Stark." Pepper opened the magazine only to see pictures of Buffy as a child and even a picture of her and Tony and Rhodey by one of Howards old cars. What surprised Pepper was the lack of info on Buffy's past. There was nothing about her burning down the school in L.A or even anything about Sunnydale. Pepper got curious as to why that was, so she quickly sat at the desk and tried looking for any newspaper clippings or anything on what happened. There was nothing, it was as though it had all been completely erased. Pepper sighed then remembered that now that Buffy had been exposed, the press would be surrounding the house trying to get a look at her. Plus now the members of the board are going to know the heir to the company is back, they will want to see her, especially now with Tony missing. Pepper knew that after what happened to Joyce, Buffy was not ready to face the press or the board.

* * *

 **A cave in** **Afghanistan:**

Tony finishes the mask for the suit and places it in front of Yinsen. Yinsen nods knowing their almost ready.  
Tony is wrapping his hands as Yinsen sets up the suits so Tony can get it on. Tony puts on a jacket, gloves and a neck brace. Yinsen then places the first part of the suit on Tony "Okay? Can you move?" Tony moves his hand to show Yinsen, who nods as he screws in the bolts of the suit "Okay, say it again."  
"41 steps straight ahead. Then 16 steps, that's from the door, fork right, 33 steps, turn right." Tony repeats it several times making sure he won't forget.  
They are almost ready when two guards appear through the hole in the door "Yinsen! Yinsen! Stark!"  
Stark looks down at Yinsen "Say something. Say something back to him."  
"He's speaking Hungarian. I don't..." Yinsen starts to panic  
"Then speak Hungarian."  
"Okay. I know."  
"What do you know?"  
Yinsen then yells something at the guards, the guard yells back and when they try and open the door the bomb Tony made and attached to the door goes off. Yinsen turns to look at the damage "How'd that work?" Tony asks curious.  
"Oh, my goodness. It worked all right."  
"That's what I do."  
"Let me finish this."  
"Initialise the power sequence." Tony tells him.  
"Okay."  
"Now!" Tony yells as Yinsen walks over to the computer.  
"Okay, tell me."  
"Function 11. Tell me when you see a progress bar. It should be up right now."  
"Yes."  
"Talk to me. Tell me when you see it."  
"I have it."  
"Press control "I"."  
Yinsen presses the key "I." "Got it"  
Tony goes on "I. Enter." "I and Enter" "Come over here and button me up."

The two can hear the guards coming and know they are running out of time "Every other hex bolt." Tony tells Yinsen as he screws in the bolts on the suit.  
"They're coming!" Yinsen yells.  
"Nothing pretty, just get it done. Just get it done."  
"They're coming." Yinsen says in a panic.  
"Make sure the checkpoints are clear before you follow me out, okay?"  
Yinsen who is now sat back at the computer realises something "We need more time." Yinsen turns to Tony "Hey, I'm gonna go buy you some time."  
"Stick to the plan!" Tony exclaims but Yinsen doesn't listen "Stick to the plan!" Tony yells as Yinsen picks up a Heckler and Koch G36KV Carbine of the ground from where one of the guards dropped it during the explosion, Yinsen then runs out the door and starts firing. "Yinsen!" Tony calls.

Tony turns his attention to the laptop and watches the progress bar. As it reaches 100% Tony climbs down from the chains holding him and the suit up and puts the mask on. He moves and hides in the corner waiting as the guards walk into the room. Once one of the guards comes close to him, Tony fires one of the weapons in the suit sending the guard flying to the other side of the room. The three other guards start firing into the room , when they stop Tony appears in the suit and knocks them all down. He walks down the hallway as the men fire at him but he continues to knock them down one by one . He gets to the end of one of the hall and some of the guards have locked the door. Tony punches down the door and continues down the path until he see Yinsen, bleeding badly in the corner "Yinsen!"  
"Watch out!" Yinsen calls, Tony moves out of the way just in time to avoid the missile that the leader fired at him. Tony then fires his own missile at the leader, before turning to Yinsen. "Stark." Yinsen says weakly.  
Tony lifts the mask "Come on. We got to go. Move for me, come on. We got a plan. We're gonna stick to it."  
"This was always the plan, Stark."  
"Come on, you're gonna go see your family. Get up."  
"My family is dead." Yinsen tells Tony weakly "I'm going to see them now, Stark. It's okay. I want this. I want this." Yinsen smiles softly before closing his eyes.  
"Thank you for saving me."  
"Don't waste it. Don't waste your life. Go home and be with your daughter."  
Tony watches as Yinsen takes his last breath with a sad look on his face.

Tony stands up and starts to head for the entrance. The moment he steps out of the cave all of the men fire their guns at him. Tony stands there waiting for them to run out of ammo. When they do Tony raises his arms "My turn." He says as he activates the turbine torcher flame thrower in the suit. Most of the men are hit and scream while others take cover. Tony walks around the camp lighting everything and everyone up. He destroys all the weapons he can. When one of the men from higher up starts firing at him Tony activates the thrusters causing him to fly upwards.

A few minutes after he escapes the caves the thrusters give out and Tony crashes to the ground. "Not bad." He whispers as he stares at the remains of his suit.  
Tony wonders through the desert for hours, when finally he sees two helicopters Tony smiles "Hey!" He yells. He falls to ground on his knees just as they helicopters land. A group of men run towards him including Rhodey. Rhodey smiles at his friend "How was the 'fun-vee'?" Tony chuckles as Rhodey crouches next to his friend, he places a hand on Tony's shoulder "Next time, you ride with me, okay?" He says as he pulls Tony into a hug.

* * *

 **Malibu, California:**

Pepper gets the call from Rhodey and quickly has Happy drive her back to the house so she can get Buffy. She runs down the stairs to the gym to find Buffy crying as she punches the punching bag over and over. "Buffy!" Pepper calls as she runs over she pulls Buffy away only to see her knuckles bleeding. "Buffy! What were you thinking!?"  
Buffy looks up at Pepper sadly "I have to do this. I have to cause if I don't than-She's really gone and I didn't get to say goodbye. I try to be strong but I can't—My mum is gone and-I just don't know if I can do this anymore."  
Pepper wraps her arms around the girl as she cries "Shh shh it's going to be ok." Pepper pulls away and looks at Buffy "Look honey, I need you to go upstairs and get ready we have to go to the airport."  
Buffy sniffles "What, why?"  
Pepper gives her a small smile "He's back. Rhodey found Tony."  
Buffy's eyes widen in shock, she nods "I'll just go take care of these. I'll be back in 10." Buffy gestures to her hands before quickly running up the stairs.

* * *

Pepper, Buffy and Happy stand in the military base waiting for Tony's plane to land. A moment later a plane lands and the Tony and Rhodey walk out with Rhodey supporting Tony as he walks "Watch it, coming up here." When two men come over with a stretcher Tony rolls his eyes "Are you kidding me with this? Get rid of them."  
Tony walks closer to Buffy and Pepper and looks at his daughter "What no hug for your old man, huh Buff?" Buffy smiles slightly and wraps her arms around him carefully. Tony smiles and hugs her back, wincing slightly as he does. Buffy pulls away and smiles "I'm glad your ok."  
Tony smiled and pulled her so he could hug her on his good side "Me too kiddo." He kissed the top of her head then turned to Pepper. "Your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?"  
Pepper smiles "Tears of joy. I hate job hunting."  
"Yeah, vacations's over."  
The three of them climb into the car and Happy climbs into the driver's seat "Where to, sir?"  
Pepper turns to Happy "Take us to the hospital, please, happy."  
"No." Tony interjects.  
"No? Tony you have to go to the hospital."  
"No is a complete answer."  
"The doctor has to look at you."  
"I don't have to do anything. I've been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. I want an American cheeseburger, and the other..."  
Pepper interjects "That's enough of that."  
"...Is not what you think. I want you to call for a press conference now."  
"My god he's insane." Buffy whispers to Happy who chuckles slightly.  
"Call for a press conference?" Pepper asks her boss stunned.  
Tony nods "Yeah. Hogan drive cheeseburger first."  
"What on earth for?" Pepper asks still confused.  
As Happy starts the car Buffy leans forward and looks at her father "Did you drink anything they gave you? I think it may be making you go all wookie."  
Tony ignores the comment as he focus is on Buffy's bandaged hands "What happened to you? Dis you get into a fight and break another varsity swimmer's nose."  
Buffy frowns "Hey. I did not break his nose. I just slammed his head into a steering wheel, but he was a jerk and kind of a perv who deserved it."  
Tony raised his hand "Ok you win. Although if that's true maybe you should have broken his nose."  
Buffy smiles softly before leaning back in her seat and putting her headphones on.

A short while later the car pulls up and Obadiah appears "Look at this. Tony." Obadiah says as he hugs Tony. When he pulls away he looks at Stark "We were going to meet at the hospital."  
Tony shrugs "No, I'm fine."  
"Look at you!" When Happy takes the burger wrapping off Tony Obadiah sighs "You had to have a burger, yeah?"  
"Well, come on."  
"You get me one of those?" Obadiah asks as Pepper and Buffy step out of the car and walk behind the two men as they all head inside the building.  
Tony shakes his head "There's only one left. I need it."

As they enter the large room all the press stand from their seats and turn their attention to Tony. "Hey, look who's here! Yeah!" Obadiah yells as they enter the room.  
Buffy and Pepper stand and watch as Tony is dragged through the crowd "Is it alway this bad?" Buffy asks.  
Pepper nods "Unfortunately, you should be happy they are so focused on Tony right now because the moment they realise your here, it's going to get a lot worse."  
Buffy frowns and looks down at her phone to see a missed call from Angel. Pepper looks over Buffy's shoulder and spots the name "Angel? Is that the young man from the funeral?"  
Buffy could not think of what to say, she wasn't really sure how to explain that her ex, maybe current vampire boyfriend, who she killed a little over 6 months ago was calling her. Luckily a man walked over to the two of them and turned to Pepper "Miss Potts?"  
Buffy exhaled a relieved breath, "Saved by the suit." Buffy mumbles under her breath. Pepper sighs at the girl "We are not done here." She said before turning to the man "Yes."  
"Can I speak to you for a moment?"  
"I'm not part of the press conference, but it's about to begin right now." She informed the man.  
"I'm not a reporter. If I was then I would have already started bombarding Miss Stark here with questions." He gestures towards Buffy who looks at him suspiciously but puts a smile on her face, trying not to give anything away.  
"I'm Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." He takes out a card and hands it to Pepper.  
"That's quite a mouthful." She says as she takes the card.  
"I know. We're working on it."  
"You know, we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA..."  
Coulson interrupts her "We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape."  
Pepper sighs and gives the man a smile "I'll put something in the book, shall I?"  
"Thank you." Coulson then turned to Buffy "It was a pleasure to meet you Miss. Stark, I have heard amazing things honestly, it is an honour." Buffy looked at him confused but nodded "Thanks." He smiles at her once more before walking off, leaving Pepper and Buffy alone to focus on the conference.

"Hey, would it be all right if everyone sat down?" Tony asked the press as he sat of the stage pulling a burger out of his pocket. "Why don't you just sit down? That way you can see me, and I can...a little less formal and..." Tony stops so he can take a bite of the burger.  
"What's up with the love-in?" Rhodey asked Pepper and Buffy as he crouched next to them. Pepper turns to look at him "Don't look at me. I don't know what he's up to."  
The two of them turn to Buffy who shrugs "What?"  
Rhodey sighs "Girl I love you, but you also have his crazy ass genes, which means you know what he's doing so spill."  
Buffy glares at her godfather "You forget I'm also my mother's daughter she helped keep me sane. Tony is just nuts for the fun of it anyway."  
Rhodey tilts his head "True." Rhodey see the sad look cross Buffy's face at the mention of her mother and squeezes her shoulder. Buffy looks up and smiles "Thanks." She whispers.

"Good to see you." Tony said to Obadiah as the man crouched next to him.  
"Good to see you." Obadiah says with a smile.  
"I never got to say goodbye to Dad." Tony turns to the crowd "I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him how he felt about what this company did. If he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability. I saw my legacy and what will become my daughter's legacy. Oh, yeah by the way I have a daughter, she is over there. The little blonde by Pepper. Say hi honey."  
Tony points at Buffy who is now standing with Rhodey who is stood slightly in front of her, all to the press stare at her before turing back to Tony trying to question him. "Shh. Shh. I will not answer any question about my daughter right now."  
"Mr. Stark!" One of the members of the press called.  
"Hey, Ben."  
"What happened over there?"  
Tony stands up "I had my eyes opened. I came to realise that I have more to offer this world than just making things blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing devision of Stark International. Until such a time as I can decide what the future of the company will be." The moment the statement left his mouth all the press jumped up from their seats and started yelling out questions. "What direction it should take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country, as well." Obadiah gets Tony off the stage and tries to get the press to focus on him "What we should take away from this is that Tony's back! And he's healthier than ever. We're gonna have a little internal discussion and we'll get back to you with the follow-up."


	7. Chapter 7

Tony takes Buffy to one of the main building at the company to show her around. They are standing in the Arc Reactor room when Obadiah enters and glares at Tony "Well, that...That went well."  
Tony nods "Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?"  
Obadiah walks over to the two of them "Your head? What about my head? What about your daughter's head?" Obadiah gestures to Buffy. "Hi Honey, can me and your dad have a moment?"  
Buffy nods "Sure." but just before she leaves the room Tony speaks up "No no no, nope she's good to stay. She's a Stark. She should hear this. Plus I think her head will be fine. The girl is awesome with knifes."  
Obadiah sighed "Fine. What do you think the over-under on the stock drop is going to be tomorrow?"  
Buffy turns to Obadiah "In Tony logic optimistically, 40 points. But that's just the minimum."  
Tony grins at his daughter "See she's smart to. I knew you got something from me other than good looks."  
Buffy scoffs "Yeah that didn't come from you."  
Tony had a very exaggerated look of hurt on his face, causing Buffy to laugh. The two went back to focusing when Obadiah spoke "Tony, we're a weapons manufacturer."  
"Obie, I just don't want a body count to be our legacy. To be Buffy's legacy."  
"That's what we do." Obadiah argued "We're iron mongers. We make weapons."  
Tony shakes his head "It's my name on the side of the building."  
"And what we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."  
"Not based on what I saw. We're not doing a good enough job. We can do better. We're gonna do something else."  
"Like what? You want to make baby bottles?"  
Buffy points to the large Arc Reactor "What about that? Arc Reactor technology, it can produce clean energy which is something the world desperately needs."  
Tony turns to his daughter and smiles "You are a genius! I knew it ran in the family!That was exactly what I was thinking! Obie she's right. I think we should take another look into Arc Reactor technology."  
Obadiah scoffs "Come on. The arc reactor, that's a publicity stunt! Tony, come on. We built that thing to shut the hippies up!"  
"Jeez he's a real life Grinch, just he doesn't come out at christmas but roams the streets pretending to be one of us." Buffy whispers to Tony.  
Tony smirks at comment and turns to Obadiah "It works."  
"Yeah, as a science project. The arc was never cost effective. We knew that before we built it. Arc reactor technology, that's a dead end, right?"  
"Maybe."  
"Am I right? We haven't had a breakthrough in that in what? Thirty years ,hell before blondie here was born." Obadiah wraps an arm around Buffy's shoulder and gestures towards her. Buffy rolls her eyes and shoves her elbow into his stomach causing his to groan in pain "Opps sorry. I'm clumsy."  
Tony chuckled and pulled his daughter away from Obie "That's what they say." He say to his father's friend. "Could you have a lousier poker face? Just tell me, who told you?"  
Buffy looked at Tony confused "Huh?"  
"Never mind you told me. Show me." Obie says as he continues to stare at Tony.  
Buffy looks at them both confused "Again I say huh?"  
Tony sighs "It's Rhodey or Pepper."  
"I want to see it." Obie said.  
Buffy turned to see Tony unbuttoning his shirt "Ew!" She said as she covered her eyes "I don't want to see, what ever it is you wanna see. "  
Tony shrugs "Okay, Rhodey. Buffy, it's ok I'm just showing him this." Tony pulls his shirt open slightly to reveal the miniature arc reactor. Buffy moved her hands from her eyes and gasped "Holy crap on a cracker."  
"Okay." Obadiah said as he started to button Tony's shirt back up.  
"Okay?" Tony asked "It works."  
Obadiah huffs "Listen to me, Tony, Buffy. We're a team. All of us. Do you understand? There's nothing we can't do if we all stick together. Like your father, your grandfather and I."  
"I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads-up, okay? But if I had..."  
"Tony. Tony, no more of this 'ready, fire, aim' business. You understand me?"  
"That was dad's line."  
Obie smiles "You gotta let me handle this. We're gonna have to play a whole different kind of ball now. We're going to have to take a lot of heat. All of us. Especially you Ms. Stark. Now that you have been outed everyone is going to want answers about where you have been and why you were kept a secret." Buffy rolls her eyes and looks over at her father who shrugs. Obie tapped them both of the shoulder "I want you to promise me that you're gonna lay low. And if the press see you, show them that lovely father daughter relationship hopefully that should keep some attention off the business side of things for a while."

* * *

Pepper is sat in the living room watching the T.V as people talk about the Stark Industries announcement Tony made. As well as the daughter that had been kept hidden until vanity fair had exposed her and Tony had admitted it publicly. When Tony and Buffy had come back, Buffy had disappeared to her room while Tony headed down to the garage. A little while later Peppers tablet starts to ring "Pepper. How big are your hands?" Tony voice asks.  
Pepper turned to the tablet "What?"  
"How big are your hands?"  
Pepper locks down confused "I don't understand why..."  
Tony interrupts her "Get down here. I need you."  
Pepper puts her laptop down and heads down the stairs where she sees Tony lying on a chair holding the miniature arc reactor in his hand "Hey." He says as she enters the room. "Let's see them, show me your hands. Let's see them."  
Pepper raises her hands and Tony smiles "Oh, wow. They are small. Very petite, indeed. I just need your help for a sec."  
Pepper walks over and stares at the arc reactor in his chest and the one in his hands "Oh, my God, is that the thing that's keeping you alive?"  
"It was. It is now an antique. This is what will be keeping me alive in the foreseeable future." Tony lifts the new arc reactor and shows Pepper. "I'm swapping it up for an upgraded unit, and I just ran into a little speed bump."  
Pepper looks at him confused "Speed bump, what does that mean?"  
"It's nothing. It's just a little snag. There's an exposed wire under this device. And it's contacting the socket wall and causing a little bit of a short." Tony pulls the arc reactor currently in his chest out "It's fine." He says as he yanks on it disconnecting it from the wiring. He hands it to Pepper who takes it, even more confused than before "What do you want me to do?"  
"Put that on the table over there." He tells her "That is irrelevant."  
"Oh, my God!"  
"I just want you to reach in, and you're just gonna gently lift the wiring out."  
Pepper looks down at the hole in his chest "Why don't you get Buffy to do this, she's a lot better with technology like this."  
Tony gives her a pointed look "No way am I asking my daughter to do this. Can't risk traumatising the girl."  
Pepper groans "Is it safe?"  
"Yeah, it should be fine. It's like Operation you just don't let it touch the socket wall or it goes 'beep'."  
Pepper look confused again "What do you mean, 'Operation'?"  
"It's just a game, never mind. Just gently lift the wire. Okay? Great."  
Just as Pepper is about to put her hand inside the hole she flinches back "You know, I don't think that I'm qualified to do this."  
"No, you're fine. You're the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met. You're gonna do great. Is it too much of a problem to ask? 'Cause I'm..."  
"Okay, Okay."  
"I really need your help here. Okay."  
Pepper nods and reaches into the whole. As she does she makes a disgusted face "Oh, there's pus!"  
"It's not pus. It's an inorganic plasmic discharge from the device, not from my body."  
Pepper moans in disgust "It smells!"  
"Yeah, it does. The copper wire. The copper wire, you got it?"  
"Okay, I got it! I got it!"  
"Okay, you got it? Now don't let it touch the sides when you're coming out!"  
At that moment one of the alarms on the computer goes off and Tony yells in pain.  
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Pepper says as she slowly lifts the wire.  
"That's what I was trying to tell you before. Okay, now make sure that when you pull it out, you don't...There's a magnet at the end of it!" Just as the words leave his mouth Pepper pulls the wires out with the magnet attached to the end of it. Tony sighs "That was it. You just pulled it out."  
"Oh, God!"  
"Okay, I was not expecting..." Pepper moves the put the wire back "don't put it back in! Don't put it back in!"  
Pepper moves away "Okay, what do I do?"  
"Put it over there." Tony points to the table. Pepper quickly puts the wire down and turns to Tony whose eyes are now wide "What's wrong?"  
"Nothing, i'm just going into cardiac arrest 'cause you yanked it out like a trout..."  
"What?" Pepper exclaims "You said it was safe!"  
"We gotta hurry. Take this. Take this." He hands her the new arc reactor "We gotta switch it out really quick."  
Pepper nods "Okay. Okay. Tony?"  
"What?"  
"It's going to be okay."  
"Is it?"  
"It's going to be okay. I'm going to make this okay."  
"Let's hope."  
Pepper starts to fed the new wires into the hole while Tony instructs her "Okay, you're gonna attach that to the base plate. Make sure you..."  
Tony yells again as Pepper connects the wires and places the arc inside. Tony turns his head to look at the panicked looking Pepper "Was that so hard? That was fun, right? Here, I got it. I got it. Here." He locks the arc reactor in place and smiles "Nice."

"Are you okay?" pepper asks still slightly panicked.  
"Yeah, I feel great. You okay?" Tony chuckles at Pepper glares at him.  
"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever ask me to anything like that ever again."  
"Who else am I going to ask. I can't ask Buffy to do that. So your the only person I have." The two look at each other for a moment before Tony sits up "Anyway."  
"What do you want me to do with this?" Pepper asks holding up the old arc reactor.  
"That? Destroy it. Incinerate it."  
"You don't want to keep it?"  
"Pepper, I've been called many things. "Nostalgic" Is not one of them."  
Pepper nods "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"  
"That will be all, Miss. Potts." Pepper head towards the door when Tony calls out "Nope wait, that will not be all. What happened to Buffy's hands. I saw the bandages on her knuckles."  
Pepper sighs sadly "I don't think now is the best time, you just got back and your still recovering."  
"Pepper tell me."  
Pepper hesitates but nods "Buffy has been spending every waking moment in that gym you asked me to build her, for the past month and a half. She hits the punching bad till her hands bleed, and continues long after that."  
Tony looks over at Pepper worried "Why? What happened?"  
"Tony—"  
"No tell me."  
Pepper takes a deep breath and looks over at her boss "It's Joyce. Turns out she was sick Tony. She died a little more than a month after you disappeared. Buffy had gone back to Sunnydale for a few days and when she came home one day she found Joyce on the couch."  
Tony turned away from Pepper and closed his eyes, he couldn't believe it one of his closet friends, the mother of his child was gone. "Thank you Miss. Potts. That will be all."  
Pepper nods slowly and heads out the garage. The moment the door closes behind her Tony's breathing becomes panicked, he slams his hands down on the desk and throws everything off it before tipping the desk over consumed in rage and grief.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey everyone hope you enjoy this chapter and please have a look at my other works like The Final War.

* * *

The next day Tony heads upstairs to talk to Buffy but finds her room empty "Jarvis where is Buffy?" Tony asks the A.I  
 _"Miss. Stark is currently in the gym."  
_ Tony head downstairs to the new gym to see Buffy pounding on one of the bags. As he steps into the room Buffy hits the bag once more sending it flying across the room. "Damn your strong for a little thing."  
Buffy's head shoots in Tony's direction and she shrugs "Nope the bags are just weak."  
Tony nods and walks towards Buffy "I heard about your mom. I'm sorry."  
Buffy doesn't respond she just walks over to one of the other bags in the room and starts pounding on it. Tony watches her for a few moments before realising that she had not wrapped her hands, which had still not completely healed. "Buffy. Stop." Buffy ignores him and continues to hit the bag. Tony pulls Buffy away from the bag "No! Let go of me!" She yells as he pulls her away.  
"Nope, not gonna happen. Look you are gonna hurt yourself if you keep going."  
Buffy tries to move past him "I don't care."  
Tony grabs her arm but Buffy pins him against the wall. "I have to do these things."  
Buffy steps away from him and makes her way back to the bag. Tony who is still frozen stunned by the blonde's strength shakes it off "Why?"  
Buffy turns around and starts to breath rapidly "Because if I don't...Then she's really gone—and there's nothing I can do. I-I-I didn't even get to say goodbye." Buffy covers her mouth with her hand as she begins to break down. Tony walks over to her and wraps his arms around her "Hey come on it's gonna be ok. I know what your going through. It may just be the two of us know but we can do this." Buffy nods and continues to cry.  
After a while Tony carries a sleeping Buffy up to her room and places her down in her bed. He places the covers over her and quietly leaves the room silently closing the door trying not to stir her.

* * *

The next day Tony is at the air force base when he iinterrupts Rhodey's talk to the group of pilots "Colonel? Why not a pilot without the plane?"  
Rhodey smiles and turns to the group of men "Look who fell out of the sky. Mr. Tony Stark."  
Tony walks over to the men and shakes some of their hands "Hello, sir." The first says.  
Tony looks over at Rhodey "Speaking of manned or unmanned, you gotta get him to tell you about the time he guessed wrong at spring break. Just remember that, spring break, 1987. That lovely lady you woke up with."  
"Don't do that!" Rhodey says as he glares at Tony.  
"What was his name? Tony continues.  
"Don't do that."  
The men all begin to laugh as Tony carries on "Was it Ivan?"  
"Don't do that." Rhodey repeats."They'll believe it. Don't do that."  
"Okay."  
"Don't do that."  
"Pleasure meeting you." Tony says to the pilots.  
Rhodey chuckles "Give us a couple minutes, you guys."  
The men walks off and Tony turns to face Rhodey. Rhodey smiles "I'm surprised."  
"Why?"  
"I swear, I didn't expect to see you walking around so soon.  
"I'm doing a little better than walking."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah. Rhodey, I'm working on something big. I came to talk to you. I want you to be a part of it."  
Rhodey smiled "You're about to make a whole lot of people around here real happy. 'Cause that little stunt at the press conference, that was a doozy."  
Tony's smile falls from his face "This is not for the military. I'm not...It's different."  
Rhodey looks at him confused "What? You're a humanitarian now or something?"  
"I need you listen to me."  
"No. What you need is time to get your mind right. Go home heal. Help your daughter mourn the death of her mother. You should not be working on a project right now you should be taking care of your daughter, Tony. You are the only family she has left now. I'm serious."  
"Okay." Tony nods then looks at Rhodey seriously "Why didn't you tell me? About Joyce?"  
Rhodey sighed "You have been held captive for months it wasn't the right time. How's Buffy holding up? I know she puts on a brave face, she's like you that way. But really?"  
Tony sighs "How do you think? She beats the shit out of punching bags till they break, till her hands bleed. I don't know how to help her Rhodey."  
"Figure it out." Rhodey tells him before walking off.

* * *

 **S.H.I.E.L.D Headquarters – Location Unknown**

Agent Coulson walked into Director Fury's office to debrief him on the Stark Press Conference.  
"Coulson. Did you do it?" Fury asked as he stood from his seat behind the large desk in the centre of the room.  
Coulson nodded "Yes sir. I made contact with Miss. Potts regarding Mr. Stark."  
Fury nodded and stepped around the desk to face the window "Good. And the Slayer?"  
"She seems to still be traumatised by her mother's death but is putting on a brave face. Sir may I ask why did you have myself establish first contact with The Slayer. Would it have not been best for Barton or Romanoff to get a read on her, they are much better at reading people's internal thoughts."  
Fury turned to Coulson "Romanoff is currently on assignment, plus Miss. Stark has seen Barton before, he would have been made in a moment. Plus come on Coulson, we both know that you wanted to be the first one."  
Coulson grinned "It's just sir I have read about Slayers and if this girl is as good as you say then it is just an honour to be able to meet her."  
Fury chuckled "Does this mean your obsession with the man down stairs in the ice bed will quiet down."  
Coulson laughed nervously "Sir, it is not an obsession just genuine amazement and curiosity."  
Fury raised an eyebrow "What about your Captain America collector's cards."  
"I-I-I...that does not...they are not—"  
Fury interrupted Coulson's babble. "Coulson, get back to work."  
"Yes sir." Coulson said before quickly exiting the office leaving a laughing Fury in his wake.

* * *

 **Los Angeles, California** **– 8 and A Half months Ago**

She had the dream again. The same one she had, had every night since she killed Angel. Buffy sat up in bed moved towards the window and looked down at the streets of L.A. She had chosen to stay in a run down area of the city hoping to disappear and avoid running into her father. Which she doubted would happen anyway. She put on her uniform, putting her hair in braids and headed down to work not wanting to be late for her shift at the diner.

As Buffy grabbed her orders from the pass she headed over to the two men who had ordered the food "Anything else?" she asked the two. One of them was too busy staring at her ass to have heard her while the other one looked at her "That'll do us, peaches."  
"Pay at the counter." Buffy told them as she put away her note pad.  
"Sure you don't want me to work it off for you?" asked one of the slime balls, Buffy glared at the man ignoring him and started to walk away when the other one smacked her backside and laughed. Buffy got very tempted to through a table at him however resisted the urge and walked over to the next table. At the table was a young couple who were completely oblivious to everything around them "You guys ready?" Buffy asked the two. It was the man that answers her "Yeah. I think we're good." He turns his attention to Buffy and looks at her name tag "Um...Anne."  
"What'll you have?" Buffy quickly asked wanting to get this over with. The man reaches into his pocket "Well, ok... what can we get with this?" He asks as he dumps a load of coins on the table. Before Buffy can say anything the girl turns to her boyfriend "Can we get cake?"  
He shakes his head "Don't be stupid. We gotta eat healthy. We can't have cake. Can we get pie?" He asks Buffy.  
Buffy looks away from the two "We've got a peach pie. I can't guarantee there's a peach in it."  
The girl looks at her boyfriend "We shouldn't have blown all our money" she tells him.  
"Come on, it was worth it." He tells her, he then takes her arm and places it next too his on the table, revealing matching tattoos. "Hey, check this out" he tells Buffy.  
"It's nice. It's nice and, uh permanent." Says Buffy as she looks at the two of them awkwardly.  
"Yeah, forever" the man responds "I mean, that's the whole point." Buffy suddenly has slight trouble breathing as she thinks of Angel, the girl at the table finally looks at her "Hey, do I know you?"  
Buffy looks away "I don't think so."  
"Really? Where are you from?"  
"I'll get your pie." Buffy says avoiding the question and walks off. She asks one of the other waitresses to cover for her. Buffy feels the need to get out of the diner as soon as possible.

* * *

As she walks around the streets she notices a man with dark blonde hair watching her. She thinks nothing of it and keeps on walking. After a while Buffy notices the man is still following her she decided to try and lose him she turns into the alley way on her left. Buffy figures she has maybe less than 30 seconds before he catch up to her. She looks around for somewhere to hide herself when she noticed the metal bar about ten feet above her, the bar seems strong enough that it should be able to hold her weight. She runs at the wall opposite her placing her foot on the wall kicking herself up and grabs a hold of the bar, she quickly swings her body into a handstand and waits.

The man who had been following Buffy ran into the alley "Where the hell did she go?" says the man to himself as he look around the empty alley way. The man raises a hand to his ear "Nat, I lost her. It's safe to say Fury is going to be pissed when he finds out I lost the slayer." At this point Buffy has had enough, she wanted to know how this guy knew about her. Buffy swings herself around kicking the blonde guy in the back, she flips over his head and kicks him in the knee causing him to fall and then sends a kick to his stomach. He rolls away and jumps back up before attacking but Buffy is too fast she merely catches the punch he threw at her head, kicks him in the stomach and then punches him in the face, Buffy then drops to a crouch swinging her left leg around catching the man's feet; who then falls on his back.  
Buffy stands over him and keeps a foot on his chest "Who are you and why are you following me?"  
The man coughs "Damn your strong. Look you don't need to worry I don't bite."  
Buffy raises an eyebrow "That's a bit obvious considering that you don't dress like some reject from disco, most of them are stuck in 80's and 70's. Which I really don't get I mean why would anyone ever want to relive that." The man chuckled causing Buffy to come back to reality she adds more pressure to his ribcage "Now, tell-me-who-you-are before I get testy."  
The man points at Buffy's foot that is currently pressing on his ribs "Well, if you be so kind as to remove that, then I will explain."  
Buffy looks at the man skeptically "Your not going to go all wiggy are you?"  
The man looked at her confused "Huh?"  
Buffy rolls her eyes "You know, no kicko, no fighto." She watches the man for a moment before slowly removing her foot and quickly backing away staying in a fighting stance.  
The man stands and cracks his back "Damn, you pretty good. Didn't think you would be that strong either, guess I owe Nat 50 bucks."  
Buffy sighs "Hey, stalker guy could you get with the programme. Tell me who you are and why your following me. And better yet how you even know who I am."  
The man rubs the dirt from his jeans and the blood from his lip before looking at the small blonde "Clint Barton. I'm following you because I was assigned to keep an eye on you for my boss. Plus your the slayer, everyone who knows anything about the supernatural knows who you are."  
Buffy grins "Clint? Seriously?"  
Barton frowns "Coming from the girl named Buffy."  
"Good point. Who do you work for?"  
Barton shrugged "Sorry missy can't tell you that."  
Buffy glared at him she wanted to know who he worked for but she could tell that there was no way that was going to happen. Buffy sighed "Fine. It was nice meeting you." Barton looked at her confused "Wait, what?"  
Before the agent could respond Buffy punched him in the face sending him flying into the opposite wall. Buffy took one more look at the now unconscious Barton before taking off back to her apartment.

* * *

 **Malibu, California – Present Day**

"Jarvis, you up?" Tony asked to A.I as he sat at the computer in the garage.  
 _"For you, sir, always."_ Jarvis responded.  
"I'd like to open a new project file, index as Mark II."  
 _"Shall I store this on the Stark Industries Central Database?"  
_ Tony stood from his seat and turned to the hologram table "Actually, I don't know who to trust right now. Till further notice, why don't we just keep everything on my private server?"  
 _"Working on a secret project, are we, sir?"  
_ Tony moved around the parts of the hologram suit on the hologram table as he responded "I don't want this winding up in the wrong hands. Maybe in mine, it can actually do some good."  
 _"Yes, sir."  
_

Tony continued to work for hours until Jarvis's voice interrupted him _"Sir, Miss. Stark is on her way down to the garage."  
_ Tony quickly switched off the hologram table and turned to see Buffy walking down the stairs with a pizza box. She entered the code and walked into the garage "Hey...um, I got Pizza, you want?"  
Tony smiled "Sure, come on."  
Buffy walked over to the table and placed the pizza on it before turning to the fridge in the corner and pulling out two sodas. She tosses Tony's his and then pulled a chair up to the desk and sat next to him as the two of them ate.  
"You finished the bike." Tony said gesturing to the motorbike sat in the corner.  
Buffy nodded "Yeah couple weeks ago. Like the paint?"  
Tony realised the bike was painted with gold and red flames on the sides just like his father's old car. Tony shrugged "It's alright could have used some more hot rod red on it though."  
Buffy chuckled "Whatever."  
"So, how's Jarvis classes going?"  
Buffy looked away while Jarvis answered for her _"Miss. Stark finished the qualifications for her senior year two weeks ago. A principle Synder has been calling Miss. Potts ever since the press were alerted of Miss. Stark's existence."  
_ Buffy groans "What does he want Jar?"  
 _"Mr. Synder requests that Miss. Stark return to Sunnydale High in order to receive her diploma."  
_ Buffy scoffs while Tony rolls her eyes "From what I've heard the guys a rat. Most probably wants the publicity that will come with the ceremony."  
Buffy nodded as she bit into her pizza "Please, you'd think with the amount of deaths in that school they would have enough publicity as is."  
Tony almost chocked on his pizza "Wait what?" he coughed.  
Buffy's eyes widened "Oh, nothing, I said nothing. Nothing whatsoever." Buffy rambled before standing and heading for the door "I'll see you later kay?"  
Tony nodded confused "Sure."  
The moment Buffy was out of sight Tony turned back to his computer "Jarvis find out everything you can on Sunnydale."  
 _"Yes sir. In the meanwhile should we return to that secret project of yours."  
_ Tony smirked "Absolutely."

* * *

For the next few days Tony barely left the garage as he worked on the Mark ll. "Right next up." Tony said to the robot hand 'Dummy' as they worked on the boot for the suit. "Not in the boot, Dummy. Right here. You got me?" Tony tapped the outside of the boot and moved the robotic hand into the correct position "Stay put. Nice." After a moment he got frustrated with Dummy "You're of no benefit at all. Move down to the toe. I got this. Okay, I'm sorry, am I in your way?" Tony continued to work as the boot slowly started to come to life "Screw it, don't even move." He tells Dummey as he moves down to the toe "You are a tragedy." Tony then put down his equipment and flipped one of the switches causing the boot to open up.

At the same time, Buffy was using the uneven bars in the gym when her phone began to ring. Buffy did a double salto backwards tucked as she dismounted the bars. After she landed on her feet she made her way over to phone and quickly drank from the bottle of water that was currently sat next to her phone. "Yeah?" Buffy asked slightly out of breath as she answered the phone.  
"Buffy." Angel's voice says from the other end of the line.  
Buffy almost drops the phone "Angel? What—why are you calling me? What's wrong?"  
"I—um...I can't...You need to stay away from me."  
Buffy shook her head in confusion "Wait your calling me to stay away from you?"  
"I, uh—"  
Suddenly Angel hangs up the phone and Buffy starts to panic something was wrong. Buffy swallows her pride and dials Giles's number.  
"Buffy?" Giles asks surprised when he answers the phone.  
"That would be me. Look I wouldn't call if I had another choice but...it's Angel there's something wrong with him. Giles I've been having these dreams and it's like I'm in Angel's dreams. I know something is wrong."  
On the other end of the phone Giles sighed "I know, Buffy. Angel—he came to me for help. Something or someone is haunting him."  
Buffy took a deep breath and made a split second decision "Find out as much as you can, I'll be there tonight."


	9. Chapter 9

Buffy hung up the phone and quickly headed up her stairs to her room. She grabbed her rucksack and started filling it up. After she was done she headed down the stairs and into the garage where she could see Tony working on some kind of weird mechanical boot looking thing.  
Tony turned his attention to the small blonde "Hey, kid. Where you going?" He gestured to the bag with a worried look on his face.  
Buffy looked over at her father "Oh, um...a friend...of mine, in Sunnydale he's in trouble. So I'm gonna go down there and help him out."  
Tony nodded his head slightly skeptical "Okay...why don't I give you a lift or you could take the jet."  
Buffy raised her hand "Really it's fine, I can take my bike."  
Tony sighed and rose from his seat grabbing a set of car keys before tossing them at Buffy "Take the Impala, you'll get there faster."  
Buffy's eyebrows shot up "Are you serious?"  
Tony smiled "Yeah, just bring it back in one piece."  
Buffy smiled "Thank you."  
Buffy headed for the car she threw her bag into the car and climbed into the car. Suddenly Tony appeared at the driver's window "Be careful." He told her. Buffy nodded "Will do. Try not to get taken captive again while I'm gone."  
Tony chuckled "Very funny. Go on get out of here."  
Buffy giggled before driving out of the garage and heading for Sunnydale.

* * *

Tony steps into the centre of the room wearing both of the boots while a camera records the test "Okay, let's do this right." He says to Jarvis. "Stat mark, half a metre, and back and centre." Tony looks over at the camera and smiles before turning to Dummy "Dummy, look alive. You're standby for fire safety."  
Tony turns back to the robot arm currently holding the camera "You, roll it."  
"Okay. Activate hand controls." Tony shakes him self, preparing "Okay, we're gonna start off nice and easy. We're gonna see if 10% thrust capacity achieves lift. And three, two, one." Tony his the buttons and the suddenly flies upwards flipping backwards and goes straight into the wall. As he crashes to the floor Dummy sets on the fire extinguisher.  
As Tony struggles to stand he hears Jarvis _"Sir, the search you have requested on the town of Sunnydale is finally complete. It seems as though Sunnydale has a rather interesting history."  
_ Tony walks over to the desk and stares at the newspaper articles from Sunnydale "Oh, God." Tony breaths as he reads over everything "Maybe not the best idea to let Buffy go to Sunnyhell."  
"Mr. Stark, I am sure the young miss. Stark will be fine, she did live in the town."  
Tony sighs "The sooner I can get this suit done, the better I will be able to protect her and everyone. Jarvis let's go again." Tony stood and prepared to have another go, praying that this time he wouldn't almost destroy his spinal cord.

* * *

 **Sunnydale, California**

Buffy heads into the high school effectively trying to avoid Synder who is still continuing to try and get Buffy to announce that she graduated early. Buffy heads into the library ignoring her friends who are sat at the table. She walks into Giles' office and stood in front of him.  
"Why did he come to see you?" Buffy asked.  
Giles sighed and turned to the blonde Slayer "He wanted to know why he was back."  
"Is there a way for us to find that out?"  
"Possibly. I've been looking."  
"So we will help him."  
"Yes."  
"Where do we start?" Xander asks as he enters the office, Buffy looks at him shocked "Look, I'm aware I haven't been the mostest best friend to you when it comes to the whole Angel thing. And I don't know. Maybe I finally got the helping spirit."  
Buffy smiles softly at Xander as Giles stands and turns towards them "Well, we start, not surprisingly, with research. Xander, the black chronicles. And, Buffy, the diary of Lucious Temple. An acolyte of Acathla, expert on demons. You can skip the passages on his garden. Unless you're keen on growing heartier beets."  
Buffy and Xander takes the books, Buffy pouts "I came all the way from Malibu, to do research. Oh, goodie." Buffy turned to Xander as they headed into the main library room  
"Are you sure you wanna help?"  
Xander smiled "What else am i gonna do, my social life is non-existant."

As they enter the room Willow turns to them and smiles "Hey, guys. What are we doing?"  
After hours of research and and apologies from Willow and Xander, plus a talk about Oz, they still hadn't found anything. Buffy sighs as Willow turns to her "Hey he likes beets."  
Buffy puts her book down "I read that one already."  
Xander tried to distract Buffy "So Buffster are you at some uptight stuffy school know. Where you wear a naughty school girl's uniform."  
Buffy chuckled and shook her head "No, not uniform, I actually studied at home. I technically graduated a few months ago. Did my finales, SAT'S and everything."  
Willow, Xander and Giles all looked at her shocked "What-how-what-when?" Xander said trying to make a sentence.  
Giles took off his glasses "Buffy that's remarkable."  
Willow nodded "Yeah. That's awesome Buffy. So what did you get?"  
Buffy picked up another book and read as she answered "I got almost 100% on all my finales and a 2300 on the SAT'S."  
Willow started coughing while Xander dropped the pizza out of his hands and Giles dropped one of the books. Buffy looked around the group "What?"  
Willow looked over at the blond "Buffy how did you-?"  
Buffy shrugged "I'm a Stark. We don't do well in public schools, we are better at private study where we can learn our own way. My way involved having Jarvis teach me while I worked on my bike."  
Giles smiles proudly "Buffy that is just astonishing."  
Buffy smiled then turned to Xander "Yeah, Buffster, pretty awesome, but I want to hear more about this bike was it that sweet ride you bought last time?"  
Buffy nodded "Yeah, I rebuilt it from scratch."  
Xander smiled "Damn, is it here. Please let the Xand-man ride it."  
Buffy chuckled as Xander got on his knees "Sorry I left it at home, I only brought the Impala with me." Buffy chuckled at Xander's shocked face before he began to pout.

* * *

Tony is drinking coffee his eyes glued to one of the screens as he works on the program for the suit. He then walks over to the holo-table where the arm for the suit was now displayed. He smiles at the design before putting his arm through the hologram and staring at the arm piece.

Tony had been working on the actually arm piece for hours, when Pepper entered the garage. Tony turns back to his arm where he now wore the prototype "Up two. All right, set that."  
Pepper walks over to him "I've been buzzing you. Did you hear the intercom?"  
"Yeah, everything's...what?" Tony didn't look up but felt rather confused.  
"Obadiah's upstairs." Pepper informed him.  
"Great! Great. I'll be right up."  
"What would you like me to tell him?"  
Tony lifts his arm off the table and points his hand at the wall. Pepper looks at the prototype confused "I thought you said you were done making weapons."  
"It is. This is a flight stabiliser. It's completely harmless." Tony hits the button on the table and suddenly a burst of energy comes out of his hand causing him to fly back. "I didn't expect that." Pepper looks at him frustrated before heading upstairs.

* * *

Tony left the garage and heads upstairs to the living room where Obadiah was currently playing the piano while Pepper was sat on the couch working on her laptop "How'd it go?" Tony asks Obadiah "It went that bad, huh?" Tony asks as when he notices the pizza on the table.  
"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean it went bad."  
"Sure doesn't. Oh, boy." Tony says as he opens the pizza box and takes a slice.  
Obadiah steps away from the piano and walks towards Tony "It would have gone better if you were there. Hell even if Buffy was there, the board members love her, she's like their little darling."  
Tony shook his head "You told me to lay low. That's what I've been doing. As has Buffy. Damn I feel bad cause she loves New York pizza and there is no chance there will be any left when I'm done. Anyway I lay low, as does Buffy and you take care of all..."  
"Hey come on. In public. The press. This was a board of directors meeting."  
Tony turns to Obadiah as the man sits next to him "This was a board of directors meeting?"  
Obadiah sighs "The board is claiming you have post traumatic stress. They're filling an injunction."  
"A what?"  
"They want to lock you out. They will do the same to Buffy the moment she turns 18 and gets the rest of her trust, they claim that she is too traumatised to run a successful business. The moment she turns 18 they will lock her out as well."  
Tony shrugs "Why, 'cause the stocks dipped 40 points? We knew that was gonna happen."  
"Fifty-six and a half." Pepper informs him.  
"It doesn't matter." Tony tells her "We own the controlling interest in the company."  
Obadiah tries to draw back the billionaires attention "Tony, the board has rights, too. They're making the case that you and your new direction isn't in the company's best interest."  
"I'm being responsible!" Tony argues "That's a new direction for me, for the company. I mean, me on the company's behalf being responsible for the way that...this is great." When neither Obadiah or Pepper say anything Tony stands taking the pizza with him "Oh, come on. Tony. Tony." Obadiah calls.  
"I'll be in the shop." Tony tells them.  
Obadiah stands and quickly walks over to them "Hey, hey! Hey, Tony. Listen. I'm trying to trun this thing around, but you gotta give me something. Something to pitch them." Obahiad points at the arc reactor in Tony's chest "Let me have the engineers analyse that. You know, draw up some specs."  
"No."  
"I'll give me a bone to throw the boys in New York!."  
"No, absolutely not. This one stays with me. That's it, Obie. Forget it."  
Obadiah nods and grabs the pizza "All right, well, this stays with me, then. Go on, here, you can have a piece."  
Tony grabs a piece of Pizza and heads for the stairs "You mind if I come down there and see what you're doing?" Obadiah asks.  
"Good night, Obie." Tony says as he walks down the stairs.

* * *

A little while later Pepper heads down the stairs and turns to Tony "Hey where is Buffy, I wanted to see if she wants me to order her some food."  
Tony turns away from the metal arm "She headed to Sunnydale yesterday said a friend of her's was in trouble and that he needed her help."  
Pepper thinks for a moment "Did she happen the mention who this friend was?"  
Tony shakes his head "No. Why? Pepper what don't I know?"  
Pepper sighs "At Joyce's funeral Buffy wasn't talking to her friends, but she did talk to one person."  
Tony turns to her suspiciously "Who was this person, Pepper?"  
Pepper chuckles nervously "He was the typical tall, dark and handsome kind of man. A few years older than Buffy. Buffy's friend Willow told me he's name was Angel, and that he and Buffy..."  
Tony stepped closer to Pepper "He and Buffy what? Pepper? What creep is doing god knows what with my daughter?"  
Pepper sighs and takes out a photo she had Happy take of Buffy and Angel. She hesitates before handing the photo to Tony. Tony takes the photo and stares at the image of Buffy kissing a tall man with dark hair, who was clearly too old for her. Tony crushed the Red Bull can currently in his hand as he stares at the photo. Pepper stares in shock.  
Tony puts the photo down "Pepper I will need the car ready, I'm gonna go head down to Sunnydale. Help my daughter out. Threaten her boyfriend, then bring her home."  
Pepper sighs "Tony—"  
Tony cuts her off "Nope. I've made up my mind, that town is not exactly safe anyway, this just gives me a better reason to go. Get me a car please."


	10. Chapter 10

Buffy lies in her bed, Angel sits next to her, he entangles his fingers with her and she smiles. Buffy sits up in the bed and craws onto Angel's lap the two kiss, as they do Buffy pulls at Angel's shirt. Angel raises his arms as Buffy pulls the shirt over his head. Angel then slowly removes her silk pyjama shirt as they continue to kiss.  
Angel rolls them so he is on top, suddenly he grabs her wrists and bites into her neck.

Buffy shoots up awake. On the other side on town, Angel does the same as he sits up the ghost of Jenny smiles "You want her?"  
"No." Angel stutters.  
"Take her. She's here now. Came to town for you." The ghost tells him "Take what you want. Pour all that frustration and all that guilt into her, and you'll be free."  
"No."  
"You can't live for eternity with all that pain. This is what you are. This is why we brought you back. Take her. And then you'll be ready... to kill her."

* * *

Buffy heads down the stairs where she sees Giles holding pieces of paper "Here, Buffy. Take a look." Giles places the paper on the table "These letters contain references to an ancient power known as The First."  
"First what?"  
"Evil. Absolute evil. Older than man, than demons. It could have had the power to bring Angel back."  
Buffy looks through the papers when she notices something "These guys—I saw them in my dream." Buffy shows Giles the image of the men in robes with no eyes "I feel asleep up there."  
Giles turns to Buffy "You had another dream with Angel? What happened?"  
Buffy freezes not knowing what to say "Oh, we don't need to get sidetracked. Who are these guys?"  
Giles nods excepting the answer and then turns to another letter "Well, they're known as the—as the bringers or harbingers." As Giles sits he continues to explain "they're high priests of the first. They—they can conjure spirits manifestations and set them on people, to influence them, haunt them."  
"These are the guys working the mojo on Angel?"  
"We gotta stop them." Xander says.  
Giles shakes his head and turns to the blonde "Y—you can't fight the first, Buffy. It's not a physical being."  
"Well, I—I can fight these priest guys." Buffy tells the watcher.  
"If we can find them." Xander tell her.

* * *

Buffy and Xander enter Willy's bar. When Willy sees them he waves "Hey. It's the slayer." He says loudly "What brings the slayer down here?" One of the vampires at the bar raises from his seat and goes out the back exit as Buffy heads over to the bar. "Hey, Willy, how you been?" Buffy asks.  
"Well since you left town I've been keeping out of trouble, as God is my witness. So, what can I do for you? Couple of drinks?"  
Xander leans forward "Yeah. Let me get a double shot of—of information, pal." Xander says, when Buffy gives him a pointed look.  
Buffy rolls her eyes and turns back to Willy "3 priest. They call themselves-"  
"The bringers." Xander adds.  
Buffy nods "Bringers, harbingers. They have a 'No eyes' kind of look."  
Willy just shrugs "Doesn't ring a bell."  
Xander leans on the bar "How about I ring that bell for you?" Xander turns to Buffy "Does the threatening come now?"  
"Maybe you shouldn't help." Buffy tells him before turning back to Willy "They would've come to town recently. They'd be holder up somewhere summoning the spirit of The First."  
Willy looks around the room nervously before leaning closer to Buffy, "Well, I heard a few things, you know from the underground."  
"The underground?" Xander asked confused.  
"Yeah, you know. From things that live under the ground. Apparently there's been a lot of migration out of Sunnydale. From the lower inhabitants. Something's scaring them off, and these are things that aren't easily scared. Could be your priest guys are underground."  
"Underground where?" Buffy asks.  
"I do not know."  
"Ok, thanks." Buffy says disappointed.  
"See you around." Xander says to the snitch before the two of start to head for the door.  
"Hey." Willy says to Xander "You did great, by the way. I was very intimidated by you."  
Xander started grinning like a 5 year old "Really? Thanks."  
Buffy rolls her eyes and starts to push Xander through the exit "Let's go."

Once the two of them step outside Xander turns to Buffy "Man is it hot. It was so nice and cool in there. Now I know what it must be like living in Malibu for you."  
Buffy sighs as she starts walking "Yeah, a nice cool waste of time."  
"We know underground." Xander says trying to comfort her "That's a start."  
Buffy shrugs "Sure in a town with 14 million square miles of sewer."  
"Plus a lot of natural cave formations and a gateway to hell. Yeah, this does resemble square one."  
"I don't know what to do."  
"Look, we'll find the bad guys sooner or later."  
The two start walking again and as they do Xander turns to Buffy "Hey have you thought about where your gonna stay?"  
Buffy nods "My father he uh...bought my house here so that whenever I came home I would have a place to crash."

* * *

Later that night Buffy is in her old house she looks around the different rooms and sighs. She slowly climbs the stairs and walks into her mothers room. Buffy walks over to the table where there were a number of different photos, Buffy slowly strokes the image of her mother before picking up a small necklace from the table. It was a small locket and when Buffy opens it there was a picture of her mother, Tony and herself form the day she was born. Buffy holds back tears as she slips the necklace on.

Buffy slowly leaves the room and heads to her own bedroom, as she enters it someone closes the door. Buffy spins around shocked, only to come face to face with Angel.  
"Angel."  
"Huh...Buffy. You're supposed to be in Malibu. Why are you here?"  
Buffy steps closer "You called me, I knew something was up. What is it?"  
Angel looks away "Uh..." He's breathing suddenly become agitated "I gotta—I—look, I, uh, I had to see you, um...I don't know, I...you shouldn't be..."  
"Just tell me what's going on." Buffy begs.  
"She wants you to touch her." Says The First appearing as Jenna, to Angel "What are you waiting for?" It asks Angel.  
Angel turns to Buffy but does not look her in the eye "You have to stay away from me."  
Buffy looks at him rather confused "You came to see me to tell me that I can't see you? Angel, something is doing this to you."  
As Angel starts to step closer the look on his face makes Buffy nervous and she backs away "You just have to control it, ok?" Buffy tells him "I—I know that you're confused."  
"I think you're the one who's confused. I think you need to-"  
"She wants you to taste her." The First tells him "Think of the peace. You'll never have to see us again."  
When Angel starts to shake his head Buffy looks at him worried "Angel, how can I help you?"  
"Leave me alone!" Angel screams before jumping out of the window.

* * *

"Tony I still don't think this is a good idea." Pepper says as she walks over to the driver's window, where Tony was currently putting the keys in the ignition. "Pepper it's fine, I'm just going to go offer my assistance to Buffy's 'Friend' then bring her home."  
Pepper sighs "It's pointless arguing with you."  
Tony smirks "See after all these years you finally learn." Tony gave her one more smile before starting the car and driving out the gate, heading for Sunnydale.

* * *

"Giles, we have to do something. Soon. Now." Buffy says to the librarian/watcher who is currently sat at his desk. Giles shrugs "I'm still not sure what."  
"Find me these priest guys. Find me something I can pummel."  
Giles turns to Buffy "Let's not lose our heads."  
"Giles, he's slipping. I think we're losing him."  
Giles sighs "Look...you realise if he...truly becomes a danger, you may have to kill him. Again. Can you do that?"

* * *

Tony stares at the 'Welcome to Sunnydale' sign as he enters the small town. "Jarvis where is Joy—Joyce's house." Tony asks stuttering over Joyce's name as he does.  
"Miss Summers address is 1630 Revello Drive, that is about 15 more minutes, sir."  
Tony nods and continues to drive.  
After 15 minutes Tony pulls into the driveway at Buffy's house. He slowly makes his way over to the door and knocks "Buffy?" He calls. When no one answers the door, he pulls out one of his little tricks and unlocks the door. As he walks through the house he spots many photo's of Buffy and Joyce. "Buffy?" Tony calls again before finally accepting that she is not here "Dammit." Tony exclaims, he turns back to the door and was about to make his way out when something stops him, in the doorway was a picture of him Joyce and Buffy on Buffy's 1st birthday. Tony picks up the photo and smiles softly before quickly heading back to the car.

* * *

"A child shall be born of man and goat and have 2 heads, and the first shall speak only in riddles—" Buffy reads from one of Giles' books "No wonder you like this stuff. It's like reading the sun."  
"Yes. Ah." Giles says as reads from one of the books.  
Buffy turns to him "Priests?"  
"Um...yes, but, uh, more posturing, I'm afraid. 'For they are the harbingers of death. Nothing shall grow above or below them. No seed shall flower, neither in man nor...' They rebels and they'll never ever be any good. Nothing specific about their haunts."  
"Let me see that." Buffy asks, she takes the book off Giles when he hands it to her and begins to read "The harbingers of death. Nothing shall grow above or below." Buffy stops "What?" Giles asks confused as too why she stopped.  
Buffy turns to him "When I was driving down here I saw something, the place where they're celling Christmas trees a few of the trees...they were dead. While the rest were thriving and growing like there was no tomorrow."

* * *

Buffy kicks down the gate and goes straight to the dead trees. She looks around and spots an axe. She quickly grabs it and starts hitting the ground. Once the hole appears in the ground Buffy stops and jumps inside. She walks through the tunnels and stops when she comes across a few of the bringers currently chanting "All right, 10 more minutes of chanting and then you guys have to go to bed. Buffy says before running at them she quickly beats them and destroys the alter they were worshiping.  
"Hmm. I'm impressed." Says a voice. Buffy looks up in shock, as standing in front of her was Jenny. She quickly realised that was not the case "You won't get Angel."  
"Hmm. You think you can fight me? I'm not a demon, little girl. I am something that you can't even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond Sin, beyond death. I am the thing the darkness fears. You'll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate."  
Buffy rolls her eyes "All right, I get it. You're evil. Do we have to chat about it all day?"  
The First glares at her "Angel will be dead by sunrise. Your tomorrow...will be his wake."  
Buffy shook her head "No."  
"You have no idea what you're dealing with."  
"Let me guess. Is it...evil?"  
Suddenly The First forms into it's true form and hisses "Dead by sunrise." Buffy turns and runs heading straight for the mansion.

* * *

Tony drives around town looking for Buffy but can't spot her anywhere. Suddenly he pulls over, as across the road he spots a couple of people he remembers from photos Buffy keeps in her room. He quickly walks over to the group of teenagers, one of the girls with long brown hair looks over at him and gasps "Oh, My God! Your—you—Your Tony Stark. Billionaire, Tony Stark." She quickly stands and smiles at him "Hi I'm Cordelia Chase. You may have heard of my family."  
Tony shakes his head "Nope." He then turns to the brunette boy and the red-headed girl "You two. You know my daughter. Where is she?"  
Xander coughs trying to come up with a cover, Giles had told them that Buffy had found the locations of the bringers, and was going after Angel. "Um...well Mr. Stark—Buffy—sh-she's around."  
Cordelia turns to the man "She's gone to help her boyfriend, Angel."  
"Cordelia!" Willow and Xander hiss.  
Cordelia shrugs "What? He's rich. I don't lie to the rich."  
Tony smirks "So tell me about this Angel. From the photo I saw, he seems a little old to be dating a high school girl—actually she graduated all ready. But she is still 17."  
Xander snorts "You have no idea."

* * *

"Angel!" Buffy screams as she runs inside. She looks around but can't spot him anywhere. Buffy runs out the back door knowing where he would go. Buffy runs through the bushes and stops when she sees Angel standing on the hill "Angel." Angel quickly looks at Buffy before turning back to look at the town below them. Buffy slowly walks over to him "Angel, please. I need you to get inside. There's only a few minutes left."  
"I know." He responds "I can smell the sunrise long before it comes."  
"I don't have time to explain this. You just have to trust me. That thing that was haunting you—"  
Angel turns to face her "It wasn't haunting me. It was showing me."  
"Showing you?" Buffy asked confused.  
"What I am."  
"Were." Buffy tells him.  
"And ever shall be. I wanted to know why I was back. Now I do."  
"You don't know. Some great evil takes credit for bringing you back and you buy it? You just give up?"  
"I can't do it again, Buffy. I can't become a killer."  
"Then fight it." Buffy tells him.  
Angel turns away from her "It's too hard."  
Buffy begins to panic knowing it won't be long till the sun comes up "Angel, please, you have to get inside."  
"It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again."  
"I know what it told you what does it matter?"  
Angel turns to face her "Because I wanted to!" He exclaims "Because I want you so badly. I want to take comfort in you, and I know it will cost me my soul and a part of me doesn't care. Look, I'm weak. I've never been anything else. It's not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It's the man."  
Buffy shakes her head tears filling her eyes "Your weak. Everybody is. Everybody fails. Maybe this evil did bring you back, but if it did it's because it needs you. And that means that you can hurt it. Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make amends. But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster." Angel stays silent, "Angel, please, the sun is coming up." Buffy begs.  
"Just go."  
"I won't."  
"You think this is simple? You think there's an easy answer? You can never understand what I've done. Now go."  
Buffy grabs him "You are not staying here. I won't let you!"  
He shoves her off "Leave!" He exclaims causing Buffy to punch him in the face. Angel knocks her to the ground he walks over to her and forces her to look at him "No! No!" She yells.  
"Am I a thing worth saving, huh? Am I a righteous man? The world wants me gone."  
Buffy looks up at him tears falling from her eyes "What about me? I love you so much. And when I left town I tried to forget about that. Tried to make it go away. Even before I left I killed you and it didn't help." Buffy pushes him away from her "And I hate it!" She exclaims as she looks over at him "I hate that it's so hard...and that you can hurt me so much. I know everything that you did, because you did it to me. Oh, god. I wish that I wished you dead. I don't. I can't."  
Angel shakes his head as Buffy stands "Buffy, please." Angel begs as he stood "Just this once...Let me be strong."  
Buffy steps closer to him "Strong is fighting. It's hard and it's painful and it's everyday. It's what we have to do. And we can do it together. But if you're too much of a coward for that, then burn. If I can't convince you that you belong in this world, then I don't know what can. But do not expect me to watch and don't expect me to mourn for you, because—" Buffy stops speaking when she sees the snow falling around them. The two of them watch as the snow falls over the t own.

* * *

After getting very limited information out of the teenagers Tony heads out. He walks around the town for what seems like ages. As he walks it starts to snow, Tony looks up at the sky shocked. It never snowed in California. His thoughts were cut off when he sees Buffy walking hand in hand with a tall dark haired man in the middle of the street. Tony hides watching as his daughter and the man walk together never letting go of each together.

* * *

 **S.H.I.E.L.D HEADQUARTER: LOCATION UNKNOWN**

Fury waits in his office, for the man known as Whistler. Fury continues to pace in his office, the waiting was irritating him. He had contacted Whistler with the help of one of his father's old friends, who had often dealt with demons back when he lived in Boston. "Well, well look, big guy in a suit wants a meeting with little old me." Fury shoots around and raises his gun at the figure that had materialised in his office.  
Whistler raises his hands "Woah, hold it. You invited me here, I shouldn't be getting threatened."  
Fury watches the man closely "Your Whistler?"  
Whistler nods "That would be me. I understand you have some questions."  
Fury lowers his gun and nods "I do, they're about Buffy Summers."  
Whistler smiles "Ah, yeah the kid. Disturbing sense of imagery that one. Threatened to rip out my rib cage and wear it as a hat."  
Fury chuckles "Knew I liked that girl for a reason."  
"So what do you want to know?"

Fury sits down in his chair and looks over at the demon "I've been working on a project. A team which I want to assemble, I want Summers apart of that. However there is the slight issues of—"  
Whistler nods and grabs the bottle of scotch from the corner of the room "This stuff, so much better than that English watcher of hers." Whistler grabs a glass and makes his way to the desk. "The watcher's council and the powers." Whistler finishes Fury's sentence. Once he had pored himself a drink, Whistler looks up at the director "You wanna know when she will be free from the powers. When she will fulfil her destiny, so that you can recruit her."  
Fury nods "Yes. I would rather know when she will be free. I don't want to have to deal with the damn powers jumping at my back, saying she's their property."  
Whistler smiles "Well, Buffy doesn't like the council that much and the moment she came to Malibu things were different. However, as far as I know in a few months there will be and—incident whereby Buffy makes it very clear that she will not be working for the council anymore. As for the powers, after..." Whistler stops and starts counting with his fingers "5...no wait 6 more apocalypses, after that she will be free. When Sunnydale is gone."  
Fury nods hiding the shocked feeling of 6 more end of the world situations "Is there anything else I may need to know?"  
Whistler sips the drink before continuing "The kid's not so much with the trust. So I suggest you start trying to get her to trust you now. Or at least stop having your agents following her. You saw what happened with Barton."

Fury nods, ever since he had sent Coulson in to try and brief Stark on what happened, and to establish first contact with the daughter, he had been worried about what would happen if the Slayer learned the connection between Coulson and Barton, and then SHIELD. Which, would put Coulson at risk, but he knew that if anyone could get Buffy to trust SHIELD, it would be Coulson. "Thank you Whistler." Fury tells the demon.  
Whistler smiles "And thank you for the scotch." Whistler gave him another smile before disappearing.


	11. Chapter 11

**Sunnydale, California**

After Buffy leaves Angel at the mansion she walks through the town on the way back to the house, as she walks she hears someone following her, Buffy stops "It's late, I'm tired and I wanna go home. Show yourself."  
"You know that's probably not the best thing in the world to say. I mean who knows what creeps are out there." Tony says as he steps out of the shadows.  
Buffy stares at him shocked "What the hell are you doing?"  
Tony smirks "And hello to you too. Well, I thought it may be a great time for me to meet your friends. You know the red headed nerd girl, brunette man child and oh that tall dark haired older man."  
Buffy's eyes widen "Oh."  
Tony nods "Yeah, oh. Come on it's late, let's get you back to the house."  
Buffy nods staying silent and the two slowly walk back to the house.

Tony tries to avoid it as long as he can, but the moment he steps through the door the words start tumbling out of his mouth "So tell me about Angel."  
Buffy spins around to stare at him "Ahh, Angel...is—complicated."  
Tony looks at her skeptically "Complicated huh?"  
Buffy just nods, causing to Tony to sigh "Your not gonna tell me a thing are you?"  
Buffy shakes her head "Nope. Nadda."  
Tony huffs "Fine, don't tell me."  
Buffy glares at him "You are not allowed to hack into any government organisations to get information on Angel."  
"But—"  
"NO. Look you don't have to worry about me. Or Angel for that matter." Buffy starts to head upstairs when Tony calls out "He's old. You should not be dating old people. Hell, maybe should not date at all. Have you ever considered becoming a nun?"  
Buffy rolls her eyes "Good-night Tony." She says before heading to her room.

* * *

Buffy walks down the stairs the next morning to see Tony staring at the stove confused. Buffy chuckled "Let me guess, Jarvis tends to be the housewife of the two of you. I mean he cooks he cleans, actually I think he's more of a slave or servant."  
Tony turns to glare at her as he places a burnt pancake on the counter "Your hilarious." Tony says sarcastically "And yes, Jarvis runs the house including the stove. This..." Tony points at the oven "Is just unnatural."  
Buffy chuckles "You know there is cereal in the cupboard right? Their might even be some left over pizza."  
A look of glee came across Tony's face as he runs to the fridge pulling out the pizza box, while Buffy grabs some cereal for herself.  
The two sit and eat in silence "So you didn't break my car did you?" Tony asks breaking the silence.  
Buffy laughs "No."  
"Good. But that means your going to have to drive it back, when we get on the road."  
Buffy's head shoots up "What?"  
Tony turns to her "Buffy, your home is in Malibu. So we're going home tonight."  
"But—"  
"Nope. I'm the adult I'm in charge. We are going home. Get you away from this town." Tony says, "And away from tall dark and brooding." He mumbles under his breath.  
"Please, I'm more the parent in this dysfunctional family." Buffy mumbles as she glares at him for a second, but she knows he's right, she can't risk the council finding out she was in town. It was time she went back to Malibu.

* * *

Buffy drives to the high school to say goodbye to her friends. Once she parks the Impala she makes her way through the school. "Miss Summers." Snyder says as he walks towards her "Your not supposed to be on school property."  
Buffy nods and glares at him "Yeah, yeah no criminals I the premise I know. Look I'm just here to say goodbye to my friends before I head back to Malibu."  
Synder smiles "Oh, yes. Well actually I contacted a Miss Potts about maybe having you rejoin our school, we can even have a press conference to announce it."

Buffy stares at the man in disbelief "Look, I technically graduated 3 months ago aced all my finals with flying colours. So there is no way that I'm going back to high school, to do more math. Math equals bad. But thank you for the offer Princple Synder." Buffy walks past time and heads inside the library, where Willow and Xander were currently studying "Synder just tried to use me to get press and most probably money for the school." She says to her friends as she enters the room.  
Xander chuckles "The Syndman will do anything to get some extra cash huh?"  
Buffy nods as she flops down in the chair next to Willow.  
"So Buffy how come your here. Not that we don't like having you, but I would have thought that now that you've graduated you would want to avoid all things with anything school related."  
Buffy smiles "Oh, I still plan on doing that, just came to say bye. My father showed up yesterday saw me with Angel. I'm thinking he's not big on that. Even asked me to consider being a nun."  
Xander begins to laugh "Damn, would being a nun be more like the slutty ones we see on Halloween?"  
"Xander!" Willow exclaims.  
Xander shrugs "What? It's just a question."  
Buffy chuckles "Yeah, there will be no nunnery for Buffy. Normal or slutty. Anyway my dad wants us to head off back to Malibu, got company stuff to deal with."  
Willow and Xander nod sadly and hug the slayer good bye "Tell Giles I say good-bye." Buffy asks them.  
"We will." Willow tells her friend.

* * *

After Buffy leaves the school, she drives down to the mansion. "Hey." Buffy says as she enters the living room, where Angel was currently doing Tai chi. Angel stops and turns to Buffy "Buffy." He breathes.  
Buffy gives him a soft smile "Hey."  
Angel walks over to her "What are you doing here?"  
"I came to say goodbye. Stark says, we're going back tonight plus the longer I'm here the more chance..."  
"That the council, will come for you. I know."  
Buffy nods "Yeah...so um, bye."  
Buffy turns and starts to head for the door, she stops when she hears Angel "You still my girl?"  
Buffy smiles and turns to him "Always."  
Angel smiles "Maybe I'll come around Malibu it's been awhile since I've been there."  
Buffy chuckles "I think I'd be okay with that." The two watch each other for a few more moments before Buffy slowly leaves the mansion, the smile never leaving her face.

* * *

Once Tony and Buffy got back to Malibu, Buffy goes upstairs to her room while Tony gets back to work on the suit.

* * *

 **A few days later**

"Day 11, test 37, configuration 2.0. For lack of a better option dummy is still on fire safety." Tony turns to the robotic hand "If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college." Tony checks that the boots and the hand flight stabilisers were on correctly, before turning to the camera "All right, nice and easy. Seriously, just gonna start off with 1% thrust capacity. And three, two, one.." Tony takes a deep breath then presses the button and begins to hover above the floor. A few moments later Tony lowers himself back to the ground and turns to Dummy "Please don't follow me around with it either 'cause I feel like I'm gonna catch on fire spontaneously. Just stand down! If something happens come in." Tony turns to the computer screens "And again, let's bring it up to 2.5. Three, two, one." Suddenly Tony is flying a few feet off the ground again. Tony begins to hover around the room as he tries to take control he ends up hovering about the cars "Okay, this is where I don't want to be! Not the car, not the car!" Tony manages to get away from the cars but ends up by his desk "Table!"

"Could be worse! Could be worse! We're fine! Okay." Tony says repeatedly trying to keep himself from panicking. Once he is back in the middle of the room he lands back on the ground. He turns to Dummy who is preparing to hit him with the fire extinguisher "No!"  
Tony then looks down at the boots on his feet and smirks "Yeah, I can fly."

* * *

 **A week Later**

Buffy wakes up in her bed to the voice of Jarvis "Happy Birthday, Miss. Stark. It is almost 9.00am I suggest that you wake up now." Buffy sighs and throws the pillow over her head trying to go back to sleep.

While Buffy tries to avoid getting up, Tony after his practise in the now almost completed suit heads back into the garage, crashing into one of the cars as he does. As he crashes dummy turns to him and sprays him with the fire extinguisher.

After getting out of the suit Tony grabs his coffee and spots the box Pepper left in the room before he went to get Buffy from Sunnydale. Tony unwraps the box to reveal the original arc reactor in a glass box. Tony smiles but then is drawn to the computer screen when he hears Jarvis "Sir, it is Miss Starks 18th birthday today."  
Tony sighs "Way to make me feel old Jarvis. Where is she?"  
"She has refuses to leave her room, and is currently still in bed."  
Tony chuckles before heading up stairs.  
Tony walks straight into Buffy's room and opens the curtains "Rise and shine, sunshine."  
Buffy moans "No. Sleep."  
Tony laughs "Come on, Lazy it's your birthday right? We are going to go get something to eat. Move it."  
Buffy sighs and slowly climbs out of the bed to get dresses. Once Tony leaves the room Buffy quickly goes over to her wardrobe and opens the door "You know it's creepy how fast you can hide right?" Buffy says as Angel steps out of the closet.  
Angel smiles "Well, I think your father would have likely thrown me out of the window if I had not been fast."  
Buffy giggles "Funny." She says before leaning up on her tiptoes to kiss him.  
Angel smiles down at Buffy "By the way, Happy Birthday."

* * *

 **Watcher's Council Headquarters England**

Quentin Travers walks into his office and sits opposite the young watcher "Miss. Summers Stark is 18. She has become too much of a liability to have around, so I suggest that we give her the test."

Quentin smiles "Yes, but how exactly do you expect to give her the formula?"  
The young watcher smiles "I currently have one of our specialised men watching the slayer and her father. The are currently eating breakfast at one of the best restaurants in Malibu. Our man is going to inject the slayer's meal with the formula and we have doubled to dose so it will take affect much faster."  
Quentin chuckles "Good. And the vampire?"  
"Zachary Kralik, Hobson and Blair are with him now."


	12. Chapter 12

Giles, Xander and Willow are currently in Giles's car heading to Malibu "So Giles, you haven't told us what the big emergency is, that we need to get to the Buffster right away." Xander says still confused as to why they had to be awake this early.  
Giles explains "I have heard word that in order to try and get rid of Buffy without putting the council into the public's eyes, they watchers have decided to give her a test. Buffy will be drugged temporarily making her powerless, she will then be locked away with a vampire. And the vampire she has been chosen to face is one of the worsts."  
Willow's eyes widen in shock "Oh, my god."  
Xander sighs "As much as I hate it, shouldn't we call Mr. Brooding and undead."  
Giles shakes his head "Angel is in Malibu at the moment, I did not tell him of the exact specifics, but I asked him to watch over Buffy until we arrived."  
Willow sighs sadly "Poor Buffy, first her 17 birthday Angel goes evil, now on her 18th the watcher's council try to make her dinner."  
Xander looks at his friend confused "They're gonna make her dinner? But I thought—"  
Willow and Giles both roll their eyes "We will be in Malibu, after night fall. Buffy should be safe until then." Giles says as he focuses on the road.

* * *

"I feel like I'm going to be sick." Buffy says as her and Tony head back into the car "That food was too nice and too filling."  
Tony chuckles "It's not my fault you are tiny and have to appetite of a squirrel."  
Before Buffy could respond she stops in her tracks, and starts to wobble, Tony turns to her worried "Buffy, you ok?"  
Buffy shakes her head "Fine, just a dizzy spill."  
Tony looks at her skeptically "You sure?"  
Buffy nods "Yeah. Come on."

* * *

Later Buffy walks into the gym and goes to do some weights, before Tony's surprise for her. Buffy walks over and starts to lift one of the weights as she does she starts to struggle. "What the –" Buffy drops the weight and goes to try to pick it back up but can't make it budge.  
Buffy looks down confused and worried, she quickly walks over to her knifes and starts to throw them, as she does they all miss they're target. "What is happening to me?"  
"Miss Stark there are several people at the gate here to see you." Jarvis's voice comes from over the intercom.

Buffy opens the front door, to see Xander, Willow and Giles "Happy birthday!" Willow yells before throwing her arms around the slayer. Buffy smiles at her friends "What are you guys doing here?"  
Giles steps forward "Could we perhaps discuss this inside."  
Buffy nods "Sure." She pulls the door open and leads them into the house. All of them look around the mansion stunned "Holy cow. This place is huge Buff. Say how do you think your old man would feel about adopting me." Xander says as he stares out the window at the private beach. "You have a pool? And a beach? Damn. You've been holding out on us. That's it, we'll all be spending the summer here."  
Buffy chuckles and sits down on the couch and looks at her friends seriously "So what are you guys really doing here?"  
Giles removes his glasses as he answers "The council are going to give you a test."  
Buffy's eyes widen "Does this have to do with my strength going. And me throwing knifes like a girl?"  
Giles nods "It's a serum, it will temporarily strip you of your powers. The council will lock you up with a vampire."

* * *

Buffy and Angel sit in the small abandoned apartment, and Angel hands her gift. Buffy unwraps it to find a book "Thank you. It's beautiful."  
Angel smiles "You really like it?"  
"Of course I do. It's sweet and thoughtful and...full of neat word to learn and say like 'Wilt' and 'Henceforth'."  
Angel chuckles "Then why did you seem more excited last year when you got a severed arm in a box."  
"I'm sorry. Uh, it's just suddenly I'm a weak little girly girl. And it's just freaking me out a little bit."  
"That's understandable."  
"Angel, what if this thing isn't just temporary like Giles said."  
"You lived with powers before, you can do it again."  
Buffy shrugs "I guess. But what if I can't? I've seen too much. I know what goes bump in the night. Not being able to fight it—what if I just hide under my bed helpless."  
"Buffy, you could never be helpless. Not even if you tried."  
Buffy stands "Not so sure about that, before I was super Buffy, I was well, let's just say I was like a certain person who will remain nameless, we'll just call her spordelia. Looked like a classical philosopher next to me. Angel what do I do? What do I have to offer? What would you like me?"  
"I saw you before you became the slayer." Angel tells her "I watched you, and I saw you called. It was a bright afternoon out in front of your school. You walked down the steps...and...and I loved you."  
"Why?"  
"Cause I could see your heart." Angel stands and walks over to her "You held it before you for everyone to see. And I worried that it would be bruised or torn. And more than anything in my life I wanted to keep it safe, to warm it with my own."  
Buffy hugs him "That's beautiful. Or taken literally, incredibly gross."  
"I was just thinking that, too."

* * *

Giles uses his resources to find out where the vampire was being kept. As he enters the abandoned house he slowly walks around "Quentin?" He calls expecting the man to be there gloating. When he doesn't hear anything Giles continues to walk aound the house. He climbs up the stair placing his hand on the banister, but as he does he feels something wet, he looks down at him hand to see it now covered with blood. He runs down the stairs and quickly breaks a chair using the end as a stake. He walks around looking in several of the rooms. When he finds a locked one he forces the door open only to be faced with a horrific sight, of a dead watcher's body having been ripped to shreds.

* * *

After Angel got a call about a problem in Sunnydale and headed off, Buffy slowly heads back to the mansion, as she does she hears a man humming. She suddenly walks into a vampire "Let me go." Buffy says terrified.  
The vampire smiles "You didn't say please."  
"Get...off me!" Buffy screams for help and manages to escape his grasp she runs and sees a metal fence she tries to climb through the gap in the fence as another vampire grabs onto her legs. Buffy kicks him and manages to get into the road, she continues to scream for help when Giles pulls over in his car "Get in!" He yells before quickly driving the two of them away.

* * *

Tony and Pepper are arguing in the garage when Jarvis voice comes over the intercom "Mr. Stark, there seems to be someone hurt just outside the grounds."  
Tony and Pepper look up at the security seen to see someone on the ground "Buffy!" Tony says seeing her jacket. The two of them run up the stairs and down to the gate "Buffy?" Tony says as he walks towards the figure.  
As him and Pepper step closer the figure turns to reveal Zachary Kralik, the vampire Buffy is meant to face. "Not exactly." He says with a smile.

* * *

Buffy enters the mansion and winces as she takes off her jacket, Giles had gone to get the others so they could come up with a plan, and he had told her to stay put as Zachary would not be able to get to her inside her home. "Tony? Pepper?" Buffy calls as she walks into the living room. Buffy heads down to the garage only to find it empty she sighs and then heads upstairs. "Jarvis, where is everyone?" Buffy asks the A.I.  
"Miss. Potts and Mr. Stark went down to the front gate over half an hour ago and have not returned since."  
Buffy starts to get worried and quickly runs out to the front gate, as she gets there she spots Pepper's phone lying on the ground. She picks up the phone and then spots the photo next to it. Buffy lifts the photo to see Kralik with Tony and Pepper.  
Buffy runs back to her room and pulls out her weapons chest, pilling as much as she could into her bag. She slips a bottle of holy water into her pocket and then after struggling to lift up the bag, she makes her way out of the mansion.

* * *

Tony and Pepper stare in horror at the crazed man as he speaks "You know, my mother was a person with no self-respect of her own" Kralik says as he continues to take photos of the two "So she tried to take mine."  
Tony turns to the vampire "Yeah yeah. Whatever. Look I gotta ask what's with the makeup. I'll admit it's creepy but—"  
Kralik crouches down in front of Tony "Oh, your think this is make-up?" He asks, as he points at his face "I'm surprised, I thought your daughter would have told you the truth."  
Tony glares at him "What the hell are you talking about?"  
"Well about vampires of course. Now can I continue? Thank my mother you wouldn't believe what did took with those scissors. But she's dead to me now." Kralik giggles "Mostly because I killed and ate her, but none of that matters now. Cause I won't be alone much longer. I'll have your daughter. I won't kill her, I'll just make her like me. Different. She'll go to sleep and when she wakes up, you and your friend here will be the first thing she eats." Tony pulls at the ropes as Kralik puts the gage back in his mouth, he turns to Pepper who is trying not to cry 'I'm sorry' he mouths.

* * *

Buffy slowly makes her way inside the house. She grabs her crossbow and places the bag of weapons on the ground. She slowly makes her way around the room and pulls one of the doors, open only to reveal a brick wall. Suddenly Buffy hears a door slam shut, she spins around terrified but continues to search the house. When she hears someone behind her she spins and shoots the crossbow at him but he deflects it. She runs towards the bookcase, and as he runs towards her she pushes it causing it to fall on him.

* * *

Kralik turns to Pepper and Tony and smiles "She's here. Come to safe you." He mocks. He takes one more photo before smirking "Looks like the slayer's come to play Hide-And-Seek."  
He quickly exits the room leaving a yelling Tony and Pepper in his wake.

* * *

"Hide-And-Seek" Buffy hears Kralik whisper as she makes her way through the house. Buffy looks around the room terrified as she holds the weapons bag in her hands clutching it to her chest. Suddenly one of the doors open and Kralik steps out wrapping a hand around her neck. "Why did you come to the dark of the woods?" He rips the bag from her grasps "To bring all these sweets to grandmother's house." He smiles as he drops the bag on the ground then leans closer to Buffy. He backs away as Buffy hold out a cross. Kralik just starts laughing and pulls Buffy's hand closer placing the cross on his chest "Uh—oh, no, no. Just a little lower. Right. Oh, yes. Yes, oh."

Buffy stares disgusted before running. She runs through the rooms searching for a weapon; she runs up the stairs only to have Kralik grab her legs, she manages to free herself and runs up the stairs. She hides in one of the room locking the door, she switches on the light, only to be horrified by the hundreds of photos of Pepper and Tony placed on the wall. Suddenly Kralik comes crashing through the other door, Buffy runs but he catches her stepping right in front of her, blocking her path. "If you stray from the path, you will lose your way." Kralik grabs her and tries to bite her, Buffy strains as she tries to hold him back "I won't take it all." He assures her, as Buffy screams. Just as he is about to bite her he backs away grabbing his head. He quickly pulls out a bottle of pills from his pocket, Buffy comes up with a plan and grabs the pills and as Kralik screams, she runs jumping into one of the vents that leads downwards.

Buffy crashes onto a table as she falls out of the vent. The table breaks causing her to painfully land on the ground. "Buffy?" She hears, Buffy looks up to see Tony and Pepper. Buffy runs over to them and tries to pull on the ropes "Buffy, what are you—" Tony is cut off when there is a pounding on the door. "Where are they? Where are they?!" Kralik screams as he runs down the stairs. He grabs Buffy and throws her against the wall, before snatching the pills off her. Buffy turns to him as he drinks the water. After a moment Kralik turns to Buffy "You don't seem to understand your place in all of this. Do you have any idea— " Kralik grunts in pain "What have you—my pills."  
Buffy pulls out the bottle of holy water and shows it to him, Kralik drops the glass and starts to shake as smoke starts coming off his body. Buffy glares at him "If I was at full slayer power, I'd be punning right about now."  
"No! Ahh!" Kralik screams as he turns to dust.  
Buffy turns back to the now shocked Pepper and Tony who were staring at the remains of the vampire. Buffy runs over and pulls the gages out of their mouths "Buffy. Are you ok?" Tony asks as he sees the large cut against her head.  
Buffy nods "i'm fine." She says as she starts to try and get the ropes open. Buffy stands "Maybe there are some clippers somewhere." Buffy says after she can't get the ropes undone.

Suddenly the door busts open as Giles is shoved through by the other vampire. The two fight until Giles sticks the stake into his chest causing the vampire to turn to dust.  
Tony turns to Buffy completely shocked "Buffy, what's going on?"  
Buffy hesitates "Don't freak out but... I'm a vampire slayer."

* * *

Tony paces the room of Giles's hotel room trying to process everything "So your telling me that vampires are real?"  
Giles nods "Yes."  
Unexpectedly, Tony starts laughing "Sorry. It's just this is awesome."  
"Tony." Pepper hisses.  
Tony shrugs "Oh come on. You have to admit this is pretty cool. Despite the whole kidnapping thing."  
Buffy turns to Tony "Your taking this a lot better than my mom did. She said I was insane and needed help. Then she kicked me out of the house. After seeing a vampire she wouldn't believe me."  
Tony nods "Well, it makes sense. Why your little town has all those mysterious deaths. It's vampires. You kill them right."  
Giles steps forward "Buffy is the slayer. A young girl gifted with strength and skill to stop the forces of darkness."  
Pepper turns to Buffy "That sounds dangerous. How long have you been doing this?"  
"Since I was called, when I was 15."  
Tony's eyes widen "15?" He turns on Giles "Are you people insane making a 15 year old fight! Why don't you get another slayer to do it, instead of my kid."  
"There is only supposed to be one slayer at a time. When one dies the next is called.'  
"He's right Mr. Stark." Says Quentin Travers as he enters the room.

Travers turns to Buffy "Well, done Ms. Summers you have proven yourself."  
Buffy glares at him "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"  
"It means that this was a test. We needed to make sure you would not...lets say take advantage of your new links in the weapons community. You proofed that you will not be a risk factor. As even in dire circumstances, you could have turned the weapons on the council yet you chose not to."  
"Do I get a gold star?" Buffy asks sarcastically.  
"I understand that you're upset—"  
"You understand nothing. You set that monster loose, and he came after my father and Pepper."  
"You must understand, we needed to know that you would not be a threat, this was the most efficient way to do so."  
"I understand that you better leave town before I get my strength back."  
"Miss. Summers, we're fighting a war."  
"You're waging a war." Giles says as he steps up to Travers "She's fighting it."  
"Mr. Giles, if you don't mind—"  
"Hold up." Tony says as he walks up to Travers "I may technically be a genius but I'm coming up blank on who the hell you are."  
Travers turns to Stark "I Mr. Stark, am the leader of the watcher's council of England. Watchers train Slayer such as your daughter here."  
Tony nods, then glares at the man "Thanks for the explanation. Now get out. You just tried to have me and Pepper killed and have been using my daughter as a weapon for your war."  
Travers turns to Giles "Mr. Giles if we may..." He says gesturing to the door, Giles nods and the two of them leave the room.  
Tony crouches down in front of Buffy "You not freaked?" Buffy asks "Why are you not freaked? Mom was freaked, so you should be too."  
Tony shrugs "Not sure, I'm as crazy as you. So this all makes sense."  
Buffy smiles and flinches in pain as Tony carefully dabs a wet cloth of the wound on her forehead.

* * *

Once Tony brings her home, Buffy turns to him "So what was the big surprise?"  
Tony turns to her and smiles, he reaches into his pocket and tosses her a set of keys.  
Buffy looks at him confused "Do you want me to clean your car or something? Cause after the whole vampire attack, slash me saving your life thing, I figured I wound't have to do any chores."  
Tony chuckles "No. The Impala, that's the surprise. It's yours."  
Buffy's eyes widen "I can't, you love that car.""  
Tony shrugs "It's ok. But think of it as tradition, my dad gave it to me so I'm just following tradition."


	13. Chapter 13

**Two Days later**

"So how strong are you exactly?" Tony asks his daughter, as she swings on the parallel bars in the gym "I mean can you lift a car, truck? Oh, what about one of those two thousand pound iron gates."  
Buffy swings around so she can see Tony and raises an eyebrow "Really?"  
Tony nods enthusiastically "Yeah. I know, we can test your strength. We'll start off small then slowly we'll build up, see how much you can handle—"  
"Okay. Stop." Buffy says, she swings herself once more before doing a double tuck and landing on her feet. Buffy turns to Tony "Ok, first of all, there will be no testing of the Buffy. And secondly there is no we. I fight demons, you-do not."  
Tony pouts "Come on, just a little testing. Nothing crazy, just getting to know how fast and strong you are. And why exactly can I not fight demons."  
Buffy chuckles, she walks off the mat and over to the bottle of water on the table "Because, it's my job. Plus it's dangerous. It's not like your usual walking into a room and selling weapons, this is going up against big bad demons, with the strength of ten men who could snap your neck in a split second."  
Tony moans "But that's not fair. I never get to do anything."  
Buffy chuckles "Alright I'll make you a deal, you can make weapons for me."  
Tony grins then a thought pops into his head "You know, if I'm designing these weapons for you, shouldn't I get to inspect how they work in the field, see if there is room—"  
"You're not coming on patrols with me." Buffy states.  
"Oh, come on how is that—"  
Suddenly Jarvis' voice comes from the intercom _"Sir, the program down stairs has finished running."  
_ Buffy raises an eyebrow "What are you working on?"  
Tony shrugs "Sorry, that's confidential."  
Buffy laugh "Funny."  
"Make you a deal, you let me come with you once, and I'll tell you."  
Buffy tilts her head and thinks "Umm...No."  
Tony moans in annoyance "This isn't over." He tells her before leaving the room.  
Buffy laughs slightly before turning to the throwing knifes on the wall.

* * *

"Notes. Main transducer feels sluggish at plus 40 altitude." Tony says as he stares at the multiple screens in front of him "Hull pressurisation is problematic. I'm thinking icing is the probable factor."  
 _"A very astute observation, sir."_ Jarvis tells him _"Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems."_

Tony continues to work until he spots the TV "Tonight's red-hot carpet is right here at the Disney Concert Hall, where Tony's Stark's third annual benefit for the Firefighter's Family Fund has become the place to be for the L.A.'s high society. Some our now wondering if Mr. Stark's daughter, Buffy Summers Stark will finally make her first public appearance since the Stark press conference several weeks ago..."  
Tony turns to the computer screen "Jarvis, we get an invite for that?"  
 _"I have no record of an invitation, sir."_ Jarvis informs him.

Tony continues to listen getting rather irritated with the TV reporter, a moment later the Mark II appears on one of the screens _"The render is complete."_ Jarvis tells him.  
Tony stares at it for a moment "A little ostentatious, don't you think?"  
 _"What was I thinking? You're usually so discreet."  
_ Tony sighs then spots Buffy's motorcycle by his father's old car "Tell you what. Throw a little hot-rod red in there."  
 _"Yes, sir. That should help with the low profile."_

Suddenly Tony hears a loud crashing noise from upstairs "What the hell was that?"  
 _"It seems the young Miss. Stark threw a table out of the window."  
_ Tony coughs up his drink "What? She what?"  
 _"While in the training room Miss. Stark kicked one of the side tables, causing it to crash out of the window and land 20 feet into the drive way, sir."_ Jarvis informs him.  
Tony chuckles "Damn, that's awesome. Where is she now?"  
 _"On her way down to the kitchen."  
_ Tony stands "How long till it's done?"  
 _"5 hours, sir."_

Tony heads upstairs to see Buffy in the kitchen eating a sandwich "Hey." She says when she sees him.  
"Hey." Tony responds "So you wanna explain what happened to the window in the gym."  
Buffy's jaw drops "Oh." Buffy laughs nervously "That's nothing really. Just a—misunderstanding."  
"A misunderstanding? With a table?"  
Buffy smiles and nods enthusiastically, causing him to laugh. "Come on, we're going to a party."  
Buffy raises an eyebrow "A party? What about the whole 'lay low' thing? We not doing that anymore?"  
"Nope. Come with me."  
Buffy sighs and stands following Tony into the other room

"Where are we going?" Buffy asks as Tony leads her upstairs.  
"We're here." He says as he pushes the door to a large room open. Buffy steps inside confused as she stares at the empty room "Okay...you planning on killing me?"  
Tony chuckles "No. Just wait here."  
Buffy sighs as Tony quickly walks through the other door in the corner of the room, a second later Tony walks out the room holding a floor length purple dress. He hands her the dress "It was your grandmothers, figured you could wear it tonight."  
Buffy looks up at him and smiles "Thank you." Buffy pauses slightly confused "Wait, what's tonight?"  
Tony smirks "Oh, we are going to a party. So get dressed, cause technically we're crashing it."

* * *

"This is ridiculous." Buffy says as her and Tony speed down the road.  
Tony smirks "Oh, come on after the attack last week I thought it would be fun."  
"Crashing a party?" Buffy asks skeptically.  
"Technically, it's my party. I just wasn't invited."  
Buffy rolls her eyes "I still say this isn't a good idea. I still have to patrol." Buffy pauses and turns to Tony "And no, you can not come."  
"But—" Tony pouts as Buffy shakes her head "Nope."  
"Fine. But you still have to smile and pretend to have a good time. We can't have that Stark name going all crazy...well anymore more crazy then it already it is"  
Buffy chuckles "Fine, but no more jokes on patrolling, it's bad enough I have to do it."

* * *

Buffy and Tony step out of the car and Buffy looks around stunned "Holy crap on the Hellmouth. This is -"  
"I know a bit too much." Tony says as he walks over to her side. As they walk, people wave at them and photographers take photo's of them. As they walk the two the head over to Obadiah "What's the world coming to when a guy's got to crash his own party?" Tony asks.  
Obadiah turns to them a laughs "Look at you. Hey, what a surprise. Buffy, you look lovely."  
Buffy smiles tightly at him the turns to her father "I'm gonna..." She says gesturing to the party.  
Tony nods "Go, have fun." As Buffy walks away Tony calls over "Now, don't embarrass me young lady."  
Buffy rolls her eyes but chuckles, as she makes her way inside the party.

* * *

As Buffy walks through the party she can't help but be amazed. "Buffy." Pepper says as she makes her way over to the teenager.  
"Pepper." Buffy says with a smile "You look amazing."  
Pepper blushes "Thank, so do you."

The two of them walk around the party as they talk "So how was your visit, with you...friend?" Pepper asks.  
Buffy raises an eyebrow and turns to Pepper "What are you talking about?"  
"Angel. Buffy, on your birthday, I know he was in the house."  
"Oh, I can explain..."  
Pepper shakes her head "No need. Buffy, I'm not trying to pry or anything and I certainly am not keen on talking about what happened the night, honestly I try to pretend it didn't happen."  
Buffy chuckles "Yeah, that tends to be the normal reaction."  
"Well, anyway, when it comes to boys...I know that being away from your friends and not having your mom around is hard. And Tony would rather put you in a nunnery than talk about boys with you. But if you ever need to talk, I'm here."  
Buffy smiles "Thanks, and if you ever need me to explain the whole 'grr arg' thing, I'll explain what I can."  
Pepper chuckles as Buffy makes a vampire face expression, as she laughs Buffy notices Tony watching Pepper. She nudges Pepper's arm "You have a shadow." Pepper looks at her confused before turning to see Tony watching the two of them.  
"If he pisses you off, just remember I can knock him on his ass very easily." Buffy reminds her, causing Pepper to chuckle before she makes her way over to Tony.


	14. Chapter 14

Buffy is on one of the balcony's, when the Agent from the press conference makes his way over to her.  
"Miss Stark."  
Buffy turns to him "Hi, ummm...your the guy from the organisation with the ridiculously long name, right?"  
Coulson nods "The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Divison."  
Buffy nods "I'm guessing you can't say that five times fast." She jokes but when Coulson doesn't seem to share her amusement, she looks at him awkwardly "Not with the humour tonight I see. Sorry."  
"No, trust me I understand I get that a lot. I understand that you are aware that we still need to debrief your father on the incident."  
Buffy nods "Yeah, he's right in there. So's his assistant, you can book a time for that brief thing."  
"Debrief."  
Buffy nods "Yeah. That. Look Agent Coulson, is there something else you wanted to speak to me about, cause I'm not good at getting Tony to follow through on things. Try Pepper."  
"Actually, my boss is rather interested in meeting you. Believes that you could make a real difference."  
Buffy raises an eyebrow "Really, and who is this boss."  
Coulson shakes his head "I'm sorry, that's confidential, but I can assure you it's for the greater good."  
Buffy nods "That sounds great but you know, right now. I kinda gotta book, but I'm sure will make a time for that."  
Buffy quickly walks off trying to escape.

* * *

Buffy was speaking to a cute waiter, who was currently flirting with her when Tony comes up to her "Come with me missy." Tony says as he grabs her arms and pulls her away from the cute guy.  
"Hey!" Buffy says as Tony drags her over to the bar.  
Tony snaps his fingers "No. No flirting with waiters. Especially male waiters in their 20's, they get all sorts of ideas. Bad bad ideas."  
Buffy rolls her eyes "Oh, come on."  
"You know, I really think you should reconsider that nun thing. I hear it's a great life."  
Tony then turns to the bartender "Two vodka martinis, extra dry, extra olives, extra fast."  
Buffy raises an eyebrow "Wow, you really do have a problem."  
Tony turns to his daughter "First of all, their not both for me, one is for Pepper. And secondly, yes, yes I do."  
Buffy raises an eyebrow "Pepper huh?"  
"Don't do that, I know your little planning face. No, you will not interfere."  
Buffy shrugs "I'm just worried that I may have to fulfil my promise to Pepper.  
Tony stares at her intently "What promise?"  
"Nothing. I just promised that I kick your ass, if you piss her off. So I'm guessing she'll be calling in on that favour soon."  
Tony scoffs "Oh, please you so little. You get that from your mother."  
Buffy chuckles "True, but you do remember who I am, right." Tony's eyes widen and he gulps, Buffy chuckles.

Before the two of them could continue their conversation the reporter from Vanity Fair makes her way over to the two of them "Wow. Tony Stark."  
Tony turns to her "Oh, hey."  
She smiles then turns to Buffy "And the mysterious Daughter, Buffy right?"  
Buffy nods "Buffy, is me."  
The woman smiles before turning to Tony "Fancy seeing you here."  
Tony stares at her, struggling to remember her name "Carrie."  
"Christine." Buffy coughs under her breath.  
"Thanks." He says to his daughter before turning to Christine "Christine."  
Christine glares at him "You have a lot of nerve showing up here tonight. Can I at least get a reaction from you?"  
"Panic. I would say panic is my reaction."  
"Uncomfortably awkward." Buffy mutters, she then turns to Tony "I'm gonna book. This is way too creepy and disturbing for me to be here."  
Tony nods and as Buffy walks away; he calls out to her "Stay away from attractive waiters, or men of any kind."  
Buffy chuckles and turns to him "Don't worry, not gonna make you a grandpa, old man."  
Tony glares at her and covers his eyes "I didn't hear that. And I'm not old!" Buffy laughs before walking away as Tony goes back to talking to the reporter.

* * *

Buffy walks out of the party to see Tony and Obadiah having a stare off, she stands there listening to their argument and is shocked at what she hears, she quickly walks over "What's going on?" Buffy asks.  
Obadiah turns to her and smiles "Nothing to worry about sweetheart, but your just in time, come take a picture with us."  
Before she can say anything Obadiah grabs her arm and pulls her down the stairs to stand with her father and him as the press take photos.

"Tony." Obadiah whispers "Who do you think locked you out? I was the one who filed the injunction against you. Who convinced the board that Buffy was too traumatised to take on more responsibility. It was the only way I could protect the both of you." Obadiah then walks off leaving the two of them there standing on the stairs. Buffy after a moment turns to Tony "What happened in Gulmira?"  
Tony turns to her shocked "How did you..."  
Buffy interjects and taps her ear "Enhanced hearing comes with the gig."  
Tony sighs and grabs her arm "Not here." He says before pulling her towards the car.

* * *

"Oh my God." Buffy breaths as Tony explains everything to her.  
"I know."  
Buffy shakes her head "That's why you did the whole crazy person thing at the conference. You blame yourself because their your weapons."  
Tony nods "Yeah, but now I have a plan to fix it. And I want your help."  
Buffy raises an eyebrow "My help? What with?"  
"I've been working on something." Tony stands and makes his way over to the computers, before bringing up the Mark II file on the screen "Damn." Buffy says stunned, as she stares at the blueprints "This is..."  
"Amazing." Tony interjects "I know, I figured I could try to fix my mistakes with this."  
"How exactly do you plan to do that?"  
"Kinda like how you do. Except you deal with creatures of the night, I'll deal with the creatures of the day."  
Buffy stares at the screen, "So, what do you say?" Tony asks.  
Buffy nods her head "Where do we start?"  
Tony smiles "Come on Robin, figured you could do all the heavy lifting."  
Buffy turns to him and crosses her arm "Ok, if anyone is batman in this dynamic duo, that would be me."  
Tony shakes his head "NO, I am. I have the money and plus I design all the cool toys."  
Buffy nods "True, but I'm the one who is more of a ninja, you fight like your drunk. We're gonna need to work on that, see you are Robin, as I am going to be teaching you."  
Buffy smirks before walking over to one of the stations and getting to work, while Tony huffs "I do not."

* * *

 _"Villagers have been forced to take shelter in whatever crude dwellings they can find in the ruins of other villages, or here in the remnants of an old soviet smelting plant."_ Says the reporter on the TV.  
Tony sits on the couch staring at the news as he works on one of the arms for the suits, while Buffy tests the strength of the metal of the suit to make sure it will be suitable for when Tony is using it. As she snaps another piece she turns to the computer screen "Jarvis, you need to reinforce the legs they are less stable than the rest."  
 _"Right away, Miss Stark."_ The computer responds.  
Buffy moves away from the screen and heads over to the couch and watches the news with Tony.

 _"As you can see, these men are heavily armed and on a mission. A mission that could prove fatal to anyone who stands in their way."_

Buffy takes the screwdriver out of Tony's hand and moves out of the way as Tony stands and raises his arm and fires a blast at the desk.  
Buffy moves back over to the desk and pulls the now half hanging light out of the wall and turns to Tony "Subtle." She says sarcastically.  
Tony chuckles before firing at the glass doors.  
Buffy stares at the glass on the floor "You better hope Jarvis knows how to use a broom, 'cause I'm not cleaning that up."

* * *

Buffy watches as Tony is surrounded by machine's that move around him, placing aspects of the suit on his body. As the mask comes on Buffy smiles "I have to admit it, that's badass."


	15. Chapter 15

While Buffy waits for Tony to check in, Jarvis's voice comes in from the intercom _"Ms. Stark there is a letter for you."_  
Buffy shakes her head slightly confused then heads up stairs. As she enters the living room she sees the letter on the table, she walks over and opens it, revealing her acceptance letter to UC Sunnydale. "Oh, god." She breaths, she hadn't told Tony that she had applied, she panics slightly at how to tell him.

* * *

"Buffy, can you hear me?" Tony's voice asks as it comes in over the intercom, Buffy moves in front of the computer screen where she watches Tony dodging missiles "Yes. And really missiles?"  
Tony chuckles "Well, that's why I'm calling, do me a favour and give your uncle Rhodey a call."  
"Got it. Don't get killed okay."  
Buffy grabs her phone and dials Rhodey's number "Hello?"  
"Hey, it's Buffy."  
"Buffy, now isn't the best time."  
Buffy chuckles "Let me guess right now, your dealing with a piece of tech from Tony, flying around in the field."  
"How did you—"  
Buffy interjects "Well, I'm actually watching the whole thing now on Tony's computer."  
Rhodey sighs "Buffy, talk some sense into your father. This is not a game. He cannot send civilian equipment into my active war zone."  
"Yeah, bout that...It's not a piece of equipment. Rhodey it's a suit. He is in it right now."  
Buffy turns her attention back to the screen as Tony crashes into one of the flyers.

* * *

After Tony helps the pilot Buffy hears Rhodey's voice again "Buffy, you still there?  
"Yep. Let me guess you wanna talk to the lunatic."  
Rhodey chuckles "Could you?"  
Buffy smiles "Sure. I'll tell him now."

* * *

"Stop complaining, dumbass." Buffy tells Tony as the robot's help remove the suit.  
"Hey, your not the one getting groped by a bunch of robot hands."  
Buffy chuckles at the response "Jarvis, what's going on?" Buffy asks the A.I  
 _"It's seems to be a tighter fit than we thought Miss."  
_ Tony groans again _"Sir, the more you struggle the more this is going to hurt."_ Jarvis tells him.  
"Be gentle." Tony begs "This is my first time." Buffy starts laughing so much that she has to sit down on the desk.  
"Maybe it's gonna be stuck forever." Buffy says.  
Tony glares at her "I designed this come off, so...I really should be able to..."  
 _"Please, try not to move, sir."_ Jarvis begs the billionaire.  
Buffy giggles "Listen to the A.I man. He's smarter than both of us."  
"What's going on here?" Pepper says as she stares at Tony shocked.  
Tony turns to her "Let's face it. This is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."  
Buffy groans in disgust "Never tell me."  
Pepper continues to stare at Tony "Are those bullet holes?"

* * *

"Buffy, could you..." Tony asks gesturing to the 100 pound piece of metal that had fallen "Got it." Buffy says as she reaches down and picks it off the ground.  
The two of them continue to work on the suit "You know your fighting technique kinda sucks." Buffy tells him as she fixes the helmet of the suit.  
"What?" Tony asks stunned "My technique is awesome I'll have you know."  
Buffy scoffs "Yeah, awesome for toddler."  
Tony glares at her, causing Buffy to roll her eyes "Look, I'm just saying maybe it would help if at least you let Happy show you some moves. Just in case something goes wrong."  
Tony looks up at Buffy "I don't have a choice do I?"  
Buffy smirks and shakes her head "Nope. Look think of it this way, it's either gonna be Happy or me."  
Tony's eyes widen in fear "Happy it is. You know, I thought I was supposed to be the parent here."  
Buffy laughs "Yeah, you keep thinking that."

The two of them turn to Pepper who enters the room "Hey" Tony says "You busy? You mind if I send you on an errand? I need you to go to my office. You're going to hack into the mainframe and you're going to retrieve all the recent shipping manifests. This is a lock chip." He tells her as he hands her the chip "This'll get you in. It's probably under Executive Files, if not, they put it on a ghost drive, in which case you need to look for the lowest numeric heading."  
Pepper continues to stare at him blankly "And what do you plan to do with this information if I bring it back here?"  
"Same old drill." Buffy says as she continues to work "They've been dealing under the table. We're gonna put a stop to it."  
"I'm going to find my weapons and destroy them." Tony tells her.  
Pepper shakes her head "Tony, you know that I would help you with anything. But I cannot help you if you're going to start all of this again."  
"This is the mission, there is nothing but this."  
"Is that so? You have a daughter who is constantly putting her life in danger and now your running around in a metal suit fighting. If you think that this is all there is then, well, then, I quit."  
Buffy looks between the two and stands "I'm gonna give you guys a minute."

* * *

After Pepper leaves Buffy is on the phone to Willow talking, not noticing Tony walk into the room "Oh, yes Wil, because I imagine the whole my boyfriend's a vampire thing is going to go well."  
"Your boyfriends a what?!" Tony yells  
Buffy's eyes widen "Wil, Oh I, gotta call you back." Buffy quickly hangs up the phone and turns to Tony "I-uh...um...I can explain."  
Tony crosses his arms "I'm sure."  
Buffy sighs "Alright, I guess I'll just rip off the band-aid here. Angel's 243 years old."  
"Are you insane!" Tony exclaims "You are supposed to date people your own age, not people who have been around since before that stupid captain my dad always talked about."  
Buffy sighs "It's complicated. He has a soul. He's good."  
Tony raises an eyebrow "He was cursed by gypsies." She tells him.  
Tony sighs and runs his hand through his hair "You are 18 years old, you have a future ahead of you. How do you think your future with him is going to play out?"  
Buffy glares at him "My relationship with Angel is none of your business!" She then walks out of the room.

* * *

Tony huffs and grabs his phone "Jarvis, find Angel's number now."  
 _"Sir, maybe it's best—"  
_ "Just do it."  
A few moments later the phone begins to dial the number. "Hello?" Angel says as he answers the phone.  
"I take it this is Buffy's vampire boyfriend." Tony says angrily.  
"Umm..."  
"Don't talk. I have a few things to say to you. I need you to meet me somewhere, can you do that?"  
Angel sighs "I'll be there after sunset."

* * *

Tony knocks on the door of the abandoned apartment he and Angel has agreed to meet at "Mr. Stark." Angel says as he answers the door.  
Tony nods and makes his way inside "So, your the vampire my daughter is 'dating'. Doesn't she kill your kind?"  
Angel closes the door and sighs "It's complicated."  
Tony stands opposite Angel, crossing his arms "I know you spent the night at my house on her birthday."  
Angel's eyes widen "How—ah—"  
"First of all I'm a billionaire genius and plus...Jarvis squealed."  
"Nothing happened." Angel assures him.  
Tony nods "Oh, I know, otherwise this would be a very different conversation. But that's not what I'm here to discuss. I don't have to tell you that you and Buffy are from different worlds."  
Angel nods in understanding "No, you don't."  
"She's had to deal with a lot. More than I even knew. She has had to grow up fast, especially after what happened with Joyce. Sometimes I forget that she's still just a girl."  
"I'm old enough to be her ancestor."  
Tony groans "Yeah, kinda grossed out by that still. No offence, I mean you lot like a bouncing 20 something but, she's just starting out in life."  
"I know." Angel says quietly "I think about it more now that she might be coming back to Sunnydale."  
Tony eyes widen "What?!"  
"She didn't tell you?"  
"Well, obviously not."  
Angel runs his hand threw his hair "She got into UC Sunnydale."  
Tony sighs "Well, as much as that sucks, you understanding that, is of the good. Because from what I have learnt from a reluctant Pepper and teenage red headed friend of Buffy's, when it comes to you, Angel, she's just like any other young girl. Pepper helped me realise that you're all she can see of tomorrow, but I think we both know that there are some hard choices ahead. If she can't make them, you're gonna have to. I know you care about her, but you better care enough." Tony sighs "I know, I'm not exactly dad of the year but...if there is one thing I can do, it's make sure she has her best chance."


	16. Chapter 16

Angel walks into Buffy's room and sighs sadly knowing what he must do. "Hey." Buffy says as she sees him "What you doing here?"  
"We need to talk."  
Buffy looks at him seriously "Ok. What's with the dire look on your face?"  
"Look, this isn't easy but—it's, uh—"  
"Angel, if you have something to say then say it. Drop with the cryptic. You're scaring me. Did something happen in Sunnydale?"  
Angel shakes his head "Don't worry, we're handling it. But—I've been thinking about our future. With you considering coming back to Sunnydale. And the more I do, the more I feel like us, you and me being together, is unfair to you."  
Buffy looks at him shocked, hurt and a little confused "Where is this coming from?"  
"Someone in Sunnydale, he said something. He was right."  
"What so some random guy tells you we're doomed and your all 'yep, your a genius totally right'."

Angel walks to the other side of the room away from Buffy and sighs deeply "You deserve more. You deserve something outside of demons and darkness. I mean, you should be with someone who can take you into the light, someone who can make love to you."  
Buffy steps closer "I don't care about that." She says as tears begin to fill her eyes.  
"You will. And children."  
"Children?" Buffy interjects "Can you say jumping the gun? I kill the goldfish. Plus I already have to deal with my father, he's child enough for a life time."  
"You say that today, but you have no idea how fast it goes, Buffy. Before you know it, you'll want it all—a normal life—"  
Buffy interjects "I'll never have a normal life. Not even if I was normal, I'm still a Stark—meaning un-normal life."  
"And you'll also always be the slayer. But that's all the more reason why you should try and have a real relationship...instead of this—this freak show." Angel freezes looking at the broken expression on Buffy's face "I didn't mean that."

Buffy turns away from him and starts to head for the door, but Angel grabs her arm "I'm sorry. All right, Buffy? You know how much I love you. It kill me to say this."  
"Then don't" Buffy cries "Who are you to tell me what's right for me? You think I haven't thought about this?"  
"Have you? Rationally?"  
Buffy starts to get annoyed "No. No, of course not. I'm just some swoony little schoolgirl, right?" Buffy pauses "Well technically I'm not a school girl."  
"I'm trying to do what's right here, ok? I'm trying to think with my head instead of my heart."  
"Heart? You have a heart? It isn't even beating."  
Angel's eyes widen "Don't."  
"Don't what? Don't love you? Don't hope that I don't lose anyone else? I'm sorry. You know what? I didn't know that I got a choice in that. I'm never gonna chage. I can't change. I want my life to be with you."  
"I don't." He whispers.  
Buffy's eyes widen as her heart begins to break "You don't wanna be with me?  
Angel looks down at the ground refusing to say anything.  
"I can't believe you're breaking up with me." Buffy says.  
"It doesn't mean that I don't—"

Buffy turns away effectively cutting him off. After a moment Buffy turns to face him "How am I supposed to stay away from you? Escpecially considering I might be coming back."  
"I'm leaving. After the battle coming up. Giles is gonna fill you in. After it's finished, if we survive, I'll go."  
"Where?"  
"I don't know."  
Buffy looks up at him sadly "Is this really happening?"

* * *

Tony walks into the living room "Buffy?" He calls as he looks around. When he doesn't hear an answer he sighs before walking over to the couch. Ad he sits he picks up the ringing phone next to him and spots Pepper's number. As he answers, he freezes, unable to move or speak, suddenly the phone is ripped from his grasp by Obadiah who appears behind him "Breathe." He tells Tony, as he places Tony's head against the back of the couch "Easy, easy. You remember this one, right?" Obadiah says as he shows Tony the small device in his hands "It's a shame the government didn't approve it. There's so many applications for causing short-term paralysis." Obadiah circles around the couch, so he is facing Tony and takes the billionaire's chin in his hands "Ah, Tony. When I ordered the hit on you, I worried that I was killing the golden goose." Obadiah continues, as he pulls out a small device and holds it over the arc reactor "But you see, it was just fate that you survived that."  
He then uses the device to then pull the reactor from Tony's chest "You had one last golden egg to give. Do you really think that just because you have an idea, it belongs to you? Your father, he helped give us the atomic bomb. And who knows what your sweet little Buffy will give the world. Now, what kind of world would it be today if your old man was as selfish as you? Or what world will it be tomorrow if your daughter took after you instead of her mother." Obadiah disconnects the reactor from Stark's chest and gazes at it "Ah, it's beautiful. Oh, Tony, this is your Ninth Symphony. Ah. What a masterpiece. Look at that. This is your legacy. A new generation of weapons with this at its heart. Weapons that will help steer the world back on curse, put the balance of power in our hands. The right hands." As he places the Arc Reactor in his case he turns to Tony "I wish you could've seen my prototype. Well, not as conservative as yours, It's a shame you brought Buffy and Pepper into this. It would have been nice to have Buffy around, she's good company, like a daughter and I'm sure within time she would have understood my plans were for the better. It's such as shame." Obadiah then taps Tony's shoulder before standing and leaving the room.

* * *

Buffy is currently crying in bed when her phone starts to ring "What?" She asks annoyed.  
"Buffy!" Rhodey yells "Thank God. Where are you?"  
"At the house, why?" Buffy asks as she sits up, wiping her eyes.  
"Obadiah, he was the one that tried to have Tony, killed."  
"Oh, my god. Where is he?"  
Suddenly there is a crashing noise from downstairs and Buffy drops the phone before running out the room.

Buffy runs through the house looking for Tony "Tony!" She screams as she runs into the living room, as she does she notices the door to the shop open. She quickly runs down the stairs and sees Tony lying on the ground, "Tony!" She yells again, she punches through the glass door ignoring the pain as the glass cuts her hand. She then runs over to her father and shakes the now unconscious man "Tony!" When he doesn't respond Buffy shakes him again "Tony. Come on please. I can't lose you too." She cries. "Please, Dad. You have to get up."  
Suddenly Tony gasps and turns to her "Buffy! Your ok?"  
Buffy nods and hugs him "Your not supposed to die. You promised me you wouldn't die."  
Tony hugs her "I Know. I'm sorry."  
Buffy chuckles "You're such an idiot."

"Tony? Buffy?" Rhodey calls as he runs down the stairs.  
Buffy helps Tony stand so he can face him "Where's Pepper?" Tony asks panicked.  
"She's fine." Rhodey assures him "She's with five guards."  
Tony's eyes widen "That's not gonna be enough."

* * *

Buffy and Rhodey watch as Tony is placed in the suit "That's the coolest thing I've ever seen." Rhodey says.  
Tony chuckles "Really? Buffy show him and quickly."  
Buffy sighs and walks over to the metal desk currently bolted to the ground. She reaches down and pulls it from the ground and throws it into the corner of the room.  
Rhodey stares at her shocked "Okay, that is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Someone wanna explain that."  
Buffy shakes her head "Too much to tell, too little time. Later. You ready?" Buffy asks Tony.  
Tony nods "Let's do it." Tony walks over to the metal door on the other side of the room and presses a button revealing a long metal bo-staff and several items of clothing. He then turns to Buffy "The staff uses the same power source as the suit. You can split it, and use it as two batons instead. The leather suit is lined with a bulletproof polymer. Just do me a favour and try not to get shot. And remember this..." Tony gestures to the black suit with red and silver lining throughout "...is just a prototype. Your actual suit will be way more awesome."  
Buffy chuckles "I thought I said weapons only."  
"You didn't say I couldn't make a suit. Now go get ready and meet me there, I'll deal with Obie, you do what you gotta do." As she heads for the door Tony tells her one more thing "There's a wig and some goggles in there, although goggles are more like sunglasses with Jarvis abilities. Thought you would like to keep you secret identity."  
Buffy chuckles before she nods and starts to head for the door but stops "Dad." She calls "Don't die out there." She then quickly exits the room.

Once the door closes behind her Tony turns to Rhodey and smiles "She called me Dad."  
Rhodey chuckles "You need me to do anything else?"  
"Buffy's got the ground." The helmet the goes over his face "So you keep the skies clear." Tony then flies through the hole in the ceiling.  
Rhodey stares as Tony goes "Damn." He then turns around to see a silver unfinished suit "Next time, baby."

"Quit, dreaming." Buffy tells him as she steps out of the other room. Rhodey turns to her "Why do you get a suit and I don't?" He says gesturing to her new suit when she currently has two red and silver bo-staffs on her sides as well as a range of knifes, she also wears a raven haired wig with a fringe, as well as the glasses Tony designed. Buffy smirks "Technically, my suit is something some assassin spy would wear and also because, I have super strength, plus- you really, think he's gonna give you a suit."  
Rhodey's face falls, causing Buffy to chuckles before she walks over to her motor cycle, as she puts on her helmet she turns to Rhodey "Come on Old Man." She says before driving out of the room.


	17. Chapter 17

Buffy drives in front of the back entrance to the section where Obadiah is keeping his work. She jumps off the bike and pulls off her helmet before running towards the door. When she sees the gaping whole in the door, she grabs the bo-staffs from her suit and slowly makes her way down the stairs.

Buffy continues to head down the stairs when she hears someone speaking "Looks like you were right. He was building a suit."  
Buffy turns towards the voice, only to spot Pepper and Agent Coulson as well as several agents.  
"I thought it'd be bigger."  
Buffy starts to move when she hears something coming towards them "Not good." She says before running towards the agents "Pepper!" Buffy calls.  
Pepper turns to her stunned "Buffy? Is that you?"  
Buffy nods "I know. I'm not used to it either."  
"What are you doing here?"  
"We gotta go. Now!"

Suddenly the large suit in the corner stands "Smart one, young Stark." He says before swinging his arm towards her, Buffy pushes Pepper out of the way, before doing a back flip away from the robotic arm "Run!" She yells.  
Buffy runs over to Pepper and helps her stand "Run! Now!" Pepper nods and quickly begins running.  
Buffy turns back to see the agents firing their guns unsuccessfully at the suit.  
When one of the agents is crushed, his gun lands by Buffy "These thing's never useful." She says before pointing one of the staffs at the suit. Suddenly a large burst of energy comes out of the staff knocking Obadiah away.

* * *

"Pepper!" Buffy calls as she comes out of the building.  
"Buffy!" Pepper exclaims as she runs over to the girl and wraps her arms around her, "Are you okay?"  
Buffy nods "I'm good. You?"  
 _"Buffy, Pepper. You girls alright?"_ Tony's voice comes from Pepper's phone.  
Buffy chuckles "Hacking Pepper's phone cleaver. We're good."  
"Obadiah, he's gone insane!" Pepper says panicked.  
"I know." Tony tells her.  
Buffy swings the staff as she speaks "These things are awesome, totally kicked his ass."  
Tony chuckles "Knew you would like them. Listen, you'd better get out of there. Or at least get Pepper out of there. Cause from my guess she's-"  
"Panicking? That would be a yep."  
"He built a suit." Pepper says.  
"Get out of there right now!" Tony says more urgently.

Suddenly the ground begins to shake "Shit!" Buffy exclaims as she see Obadiah appear out of the concrete ground "Not good."  
"Where do you think you're going?" Obadiah asks.  
Buffy sighs "Crap." Buffy gets into fighting stance "Pepper go now!"  
"Look, whose brave. Stupid but brave." Obadiah says before bringing his arm down in hopes of crushing Buffy. Shockingly to him, Buffy grasps his giant arm and lifts him, she grunts "Ah, gonna-feel this in the morning." She grunts once more before throwing him away from her and Pepper, causing him to crash into the wall of a nearby building.

A moment later he stands "Interesting, how'd you do that? Who are you, Buffy?"  
Buffy smirks "I'm Buffy. The super strong blonde girl, and you are completely insane."  
He stamps towards her and raises his hands revealing several guns "Are you bulletproof?"  
Buffy looks down at her suit "Sort of."  
"Stane!" Tony yells before flying over and crashing right into Obadiah. Buffy and Pepper watch as the two men go crashing through several buildings and onto the main road.

Buffy turns to Pepper "Get somewhere safe." Buffy then jumps on her motorbike and drives towards the chaos. Buffy grabs the staff as she see's Obadiah holding a car, she presses on the staff causing the burst of energy to fly towards him. It hits him in the centre and knocks him back, as he flies back he throws the car but Tony catches it only to have the people inside the run him over in effort to escape.

* * *

Buffy seeing Tony now up and going after Obie heads over to the bus currently stuck, she drives over and then helps everyone off just in time, as a moment later Obadiah throws Tony into the bus. Suddenly Obadiah aims a missile at Tony. As the bus blows up Buffy's widen "Oh, god."  
Buffy begins to panic but sighs in relief when Tony flies upwards "Impressive!" Obadiah says "You've upgraded your armour! I've made some upgrades of my own."  
Suddenly Obadiah begins to fly upwards. "Holy crap on a cracker." Buffy says as she watches.

Buffy huffs knowing she's unable to do anything now, she quickly jumps on her bike and drive back over to Pepper.

* * *

"Buffy, you ok?" Pepper asks as Buffy jumps off the bike and runs over to her "I'm good. How—"  
 _"Potts, little me!"_ Tony's voice comes from Pepper's phone.  
"Tony! Oh, my God, are you okay?" Pepper asks relieved.  
"I'm almost out of power. I've got to get out of this thing. I'll be right there."  
Buffy then hears a grunt of pain "Dad!"  
When he doesn't respond Buffy and Pepper begin to panic.

After a minute the two of them hear a voice from the phone "Potts? Buff?"  
"Tony!" Pepper exclaims relieved.  
"This isn't working." He tells them "We're going to have to overload the reactor and blast the roof."  
"Well, how are you going to do that?"  
"You and Buffy are going to do that? Buffy you understand what to do?"  
"Go to the central console, open up all the circuits." Buffy says.  
"Yes. But wait till I get clear of the roof. I don't want you blowing me up. Just because of the fight."  
Buffy nods "No manslaughter. Got it. Master bypass button?"  
"Yep. It's going to fry everything up here."

* * *

Buffy and Pepper head inside "We're going in now." Pepper informs Tony.  
"Good. Make sure you wait till I clear the roof. I'll buy you sometime."  
"Are you sure you don't need me up there?" Buffy asks.  
"No. I got it. Go."  
Buffy and Pepper begin pulling all the leavers down getting ready, they then head over to the desk and make sure all the circuits are open.

Buffy looks up to see Tony beginning thrown around "Oh, god." Buffy starts to head for the stairs "Pepper get it ready!" She yells before running off.  
"Buffy!"

* * *

Buffy gets to the roof and sees Obadiah now firing at Tony, Buffy runs at Obadiah and jumps up; she wraps herself around the neck of the suit and throws him off balance. "You were always such a nuisance." Obadiah says before grabbing Buffy and throwing her away; she crashes into the side of the roof.

Obadiah turns away from her and glares at Tony "How ironic, trying to rid the world of weapons, you gave it it's best one ever! You gave the world a daughter with super strength who I'm sure we can make agreeable. But this weapon, this suit. That's the weapon I'm going to kill you with it!"

Suddenly a burst of energy is fired at Obadiah causing him to fall to his knees, "How-?"  
Obadiah turns to see Buffy holding the staffs "You didn't think he kept all the cool toys to himself did you?"  
Obadiah chuckles before firing at Buffy, but the shot goes wide "You fired off my targeting systems!"

Buffy looks over at her father and nods sadly, Tony looks at her sadly before calling down to Pepper "Time to press the button."  
"You told me not to!"  
"Do it!" Buffy yells as she runs towards Tony.  
"You'll both die!" Pepper yells.  
"Do it!" The father and daughter yell.  
As Pepper presses the button Buffy manages the get to Tony and tackles him away from the explosion.

* * *

 **A few days Later:**

Buffy, Tony and Pepper are in the back room waiting for Coulson to come and get them for the conference.  
"Iron Man." Tony says as he reads the paper "That's kind of catchy. It's got a nice right to it. I mean, it's not technically accurate. The suit's a gold-titanium alloy, but it's kind of evocative, the imagery, anyway."  
Buffy giggles "Iron Man seriously? Does this mean your gonna start ironing all of my clothes."  
Tony glares at her "Your not funny, why don't we see what they called you." Tony searches the paper but doesn't spot anything "What?"  
Buffy smirks "I'm better as hiding from the press."  
Tony places the paper down and thinks for a second "I know, I have the perfect name 'Slayer'."  
Buffy rolls her eyes "How original, 'Iron Man'."

"Here's you alibi's." Agent Coulson says as he enters the room, handing Buffy and Tony pieces of paper.  
"You were on your yacht. We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests." He tells Tony before turning to Buffy "You were at a Spa in Malibu. As your better at avoiding press, your alibi was easier to do."  
Tony shakes his head "See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper and me alone on the island."  
Buffy groans "Ew." She says before throwing the cookie she was eating at Tony's head.  
"That's what happened." Coulson says to Stark, unamused.  
Tony looks down, clearly unhappy "All right."  
"Just read it, work for word."  
Tony flips through the cards and notices something "There's nothing about Stane here."  
"That's being handled."  
Buffy scoffs "You have got to be kidding me."  
"He's on vacation." The agent tells her "Small aircrafts have such a poor safety record."  
Tony shakes his head "But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard? He's my...I mean, is that...that's kind of flimsy, don't you think."  
"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark. Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will be all behind you. You've got 90 seconds." Coulson then exits the room.

"Let's get this show on the road." Pepper says.  
"You know, it's actually not that bad." Tony says "Even I don't think I'm Iron Man."  
Buffy chuckles "Well, this talks about the hero and badass. You don't fit those categories."  
Tony rolls his eyes "I am so a badass."  
"Dumbass more like."  
Pepper laughs "You're not Iron man." She says.  
"Am so." Tony argues.  
"You're not."  
"All right, suit yourself. You know, if I were Iron Man, I'd have this girlfriend who knew my true identity."  
Buffy interjects "Please, don't flirt with her. I actually like her and I'd rather you not run off."  
Tony turns to her "Ok, I'm calling in the father card. You are going to go outside while I finish my lovely discussion."  
Buffy chuckles "Fine. Pepper my offers still there by the way."  
Pepper smiles "Good to know. Might need it."  
Tony glances at the two of them "What—what offer?"  
Buffy chuckles "Oh, nothing. See you in a minute. Bye Dad."

* * *

Buffy and Rhodey stand next to each other as the watch Tony argue with the press. Buffy notices Tony start to go off the cards "What's he doing?" Buffy whispers to Rhodey."  
"No sure." He whispers back before leaning over to Tony "Just stick to the cards, man."  
Tony nods "Yeah, okay. Yeah." Tony turns back to the cards.  
As he does Buffy looks down at her phone to see a missed call from Giles. Buffy attention however is taken back to Tony as he continue to speak "The truth is. I am Iron Man."  
Buffy eyes widen as the press begins to go crazy, she places her hand on her forehead and sighs "Oh, dammit."

* * *

 **A few weeks later**

Buffy walks in through the front door with a slight limp, "Buffy." Tony says as he walks over to her "What happened to you?"  
Buffy sighs "Ascension, prom ect. Hellhounds, giant snake monster, plus extra official break up with Angel, after lots of confusion."  
"You ok?"  
Buffy nods "Yeah. Look, Angel tears all gone. Willow let me have a good cry. Plus I got to blow up Sunnydale high."  
Tony smirks "Awesome." He then begins to pout "Why didn't I get invited to this."  
Buffy shrugs "You've been on lockdown, since your big mouth spilled the big secrets." Buffy pauses "Also I told the council they could shove it."  
Tony's eyes widen before he burst out laughing "That's my girl. Come on."

Tony takes the bag off her, then helps her into the living room "Jarvis?" Tony calls as he notices all the lights switched off.  
 _"Welcome home Sir, Ms Stark."_ Jarvis says as his voice begins to become very distorted.  
"I am Iron Man." A voice says from the opposite end of the room "You think you're the only super hero in the world. Well clearly not considering your daughter has the ability to throw a man 10 times her size across the room like he's a damn pencil. Mr. Stark, you have become part of a bigger universe, one that you Miss Stark, are already partially aware off. You just don't know it yet."  
"Who the hell are you?" Tony demands.  
"I suggest you answer." Buffy says "Before I do exactly what you just said I could do."  
The man steps out of the shadows "Nick Fury. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm here to talk to you both about the Avenger Initiative."  
Buffy's eyes widen "Huh?"


	18. Message to Readers

Don't worry everyone there is going to be a sequel. I will let you know the moment I post it. Happy holidays.


	19. New Story

Hey everyone new story is up, **Buffy Summers: Code Name Slayer - Part 2 (Iron Man 2)**


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